In August, an 80-year-old woman walked into the emergency room at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center. She was lucid but experiencing a stroke. Within minutes, doctors asked for permission to pull out the stroke-causing clot before any more brain damage could occur.
She hesitated. The procedure was part of a clinical trial, and she鈥檇 heard about a federal freeze on . She wanted to know: Would this study be at risk, potentially affecting her care?
Those worries put unnecessary pressure on a patient facing the loss of roughly 2 million nerve cells every minute that treatment was delayed, said , a neurologist and longtime stroke researcher.
鈥淭o then have to worry about what鈥檚 happening with the funding from the federal government is a needless increase in the stress patients are going through,鈥� Saver said.
Patients and researchers such as Saver have found themselves caught in the middle as the Trump administration has accused major universities of , pulling research funds in an attempt to .
Scientists who have spent their lives developing treatments for lung cancer, brain tumors, and Alzheimer鈥檚 disease say scientific funding should not be politicized 鈥� and warn that patients waiting for lifesaving treatments stand to lose the most. They also worry that funding cuts mired in legal challenges could discourage would-be scientists from entering the field, reducing the chances for medical breakthroughs.
鈥淚 would have thought that stroke and Alzheimer鈥檚 disease and all these conditions affect Democrats and Republicans alike and would be supported by everyone,鈥� Saver said. 鈥淭he reasons for the suspension don鈥檛 seem to tie into the work we鈥檙e doing.鈥�
In July, the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, and the Energy Department in medical and science research grants to UCLA after the Justice Department said the university had of Jewish students during pro-Palestinian protests. The Trump administration that would require UCLA to pay a $1.2 billion fine and overhaul campus policies on admissions, hiring, and gender-affirming health care to reinstate the grants.
Yet the federal government plays a crucial role in funding lifesaving research that industry has little incentive to back. Saver said treatment discoveries made in the past 15 years have been 鈥渢ransformative鈥� for stroke care. To keep eight clinical trials afloat, Saver said, he and other neurology department faculty members sought outside funding and agreed to salary cuts. But they were close to running out before federal funds were restored.
In the ER, doctors told the stroke patient not to worry. Given the need to study her particular symptoms, they tapped a pot of private donations to cover the procedure. She enrolled and was treated.
Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat who has been challenging President Donald Trump more directly as he builds a national profile, has likened the president鈥檚 demands .
And Newsom last week state funding from any California university that Trump put forth that prioritizes federal research funds to institutions that adhere to the administration鈥檚 definitions of gender, limit international students, and change admissions policies, among other stipulations. 鈥淐alifornia will not bankroll schools that sell out their students, professors, researchers, and surrender academic freedom,鈥� Newsom said in a statement.
In September, U.S. District Judge Rita Lin of the Northern District of California ordered frozen NIH grants in the state to flow again, folding UCLA researchers into a lawsuit initially brought by researchers from the University of California-Berkeley and UC-San Francisco in June after federal agencies slashed hundreds of millions in grants to UC campuses.
Some private academic institutions have reclaimed their funding by agreeing to pay hefty fines and changing campus policies, including , which agreed to pay $200 million, and , which settled for $50 million. Meanwhile, last month that the administration鈥檚 cancellation of some $2.6 billion in grants to Harvard was illegal.
Still, researchers worry the relief is temporary. Even with the district court鈥檚 restoration, the case brought by UC researchers is still pending and could ultimately be decided in Trump鈥檚 favor. The White House has the ruling to restore Harvard鈥檚 funding, while of the school鈥檚 finances.
鈥淲e haven鈥檛 seen everything play out yet. Lots of scientists and researchers and people who run labs are circumspect, knowing that the near future could be a bit bumpy,鈥� said Jessica Levinson, a constitutional law professor at Loyola Law School. 鈥淭hey should feel like this is a win, but it鈥檚 possible that it鈥檚 a short-lived one.鈥�
Officials at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services did not respond to questions about potential harm done to studies while the funds were frozen, or criticisms that they are wrongly politicizing money for potentially lifesaving research.
In a statement about the administration鈥檚 campaign targeting antisemitism, HHS spokesperson Andrew Nixon said that 鈥渨e will not fund institutions that promote antisemitism. We will use every tool we have to ensure institutions follow the law.鈥�
HHS spokesperson Emily Hilliard said in a follow-up statement that the department is 鈥渟teadfast in its commitment to advancing groundbreaking biomedical research鈥� and that it continues to 鈥渋nvest strategically in research that tackles today鈥檚 urgent challenges.鈥�
Most of the UCLA funding freezes affected foundational science that doesn鈥檛 directly involve patients but has the potential to vastly improve treatment. David Shackelford, a researcher exploring novel ways to stunt the growth of therapy-resistant lung cancer, said he was nearing a potential breakthrough for treating the disease, which kills 9 in 10 patients within five years of a diagnosis.
鈥淚鈥檓 not used to my science being politicized,鈥� Shackelford said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 cancer. We should never even be having this discussion.鈥�
As court battles play out, Democratic state legislators are on next year鈥檚 ballot dedicating state funds to continue advances in cancer, stroke, and infectious disease research, among other scientific research. But state bond money, if approved by voters, wouldn鈥檛 come close to replacing federal grants, which traditionally finance the lion鈥檚 share of biomedical research.
In 2024 alone, for example, roughly flowed to California, with $3.8 billion of that going to universities. And the proposed bond would be broad, one-time funding that could pay for other study areas, such as climate change research, marine ecosystems, or wildfire prevention.
the possibility of even bigger federal cuts to the state鈥檚 second-largest employer would have ripple effects across California鈥檚 economy.
While other universities have sued the Trump administration, UC leaders have instead engaged in 鈥済ood faith dialogue鈥� with the Justice Department in hopes of negotiating a settlement, Milliken said.
S. Thomas Carmichael, a neurologist at UCLA, said about 55 grants totaling $23 million from the NIH, including studies of migraines, epilepsy, and autism, were frozen in his department at the David Geffen School of Medicine. As bad as funding cuts are, he warned of the Trump administration鈥檚 ability to attack a school鈥檚 accreditation, to limit visas for international students, or to launch investigations.
鈥淚t鈥檚 essentially a complete and total power mismatch to take the federal government on,鈥� Carmichael said. 鈥淚f you simply give no ground, yield nothing, you won鈥檛 win.鈥�
Separately, in mid-September, a group of UC labor unions and faculty associations filed suit against the federal government, claiming the threat to research funds amounted to 鈥渇inancial coercion鈥� to adopt campus policies that would restrict free speech. A hearing in that case is scheduled for December.
Brenda L., a UCLA patient, said she was devastated when a scan in 2021 led to her stage 4 lung cancer diagnosis at age 70. After 18 months on Tagrisso, a drug considered the gold standard for treating this particular cancer, her tumors started growing again. (Brenda declined to provide her full name because she hasn鈥檛 disclosed her diagnosis to some family members.)
鈥淚 was just feeling like, well, that鈥檚 the end of me,鈥� said Brenda, who鈥檚 now 75 and lives in Bakersfield. She joined a clinical trial and has been taking another experimental drug alongside Tagrisso for two years. The combination has all but stopped the cancer鈥檚 progression.
鈥淚鈥檓 the lucky one,鈥� said Brenda, whose current trial has not been impacted. 鈥淥ther patients, they should have that same chance.鈥�
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