BAR HARBOR, Maine — A program that provides research experience at a biomedical institution to undergraduate students in Maine would be in jeopardy if proposed federal funding cuts are implemented, according to officials at the lab.
Students from several Maine colleges and universities are at Mount Desert Island Biological Laboratory this week learning about how PFAS contaminants can affect early development in species from zebrafish to lettuce. The weeklong program is funded by a grant from the federal National Institutes of Health to the Maine INBRE consortium, which is led by MDI Bio Lab and consists of several biomedical research organizations, colleges and universities in Maine.
Part of the NIH funding for the program covers indirect costs such as water and electricity at MDIBL that students and faculty use during the weeklong program, and the use of microscopes, lab coats and other scientific equipment. It also helps cover the housing and food provided to students on campus during the weeklong course
In one of several sweeping budget cuts being pursued by the administration of President Donald Trump, NIH wants to reduce its share of indirect costs for such programs to 15 percent, a proposal being challenged by attorneys general from 22 states, including Maine, and organizations representing universities, hospitals and research institutions across the country.
The Bar Harbor laboratory currently gets an indirect cost reimbursement rate of more than 60 percent from NIH, which lab officials say was negotiated directly with the federal agency and is closely monitored by third-party monitors. If that reimbursement rate is cut, it could result in reductions in programs such as this week’s student PFAS study, or even a reduction in staffing.
A reduction in NIH funding to cover indirect costs would mean a $1.9 million reduction in typical annual funding for the lab and a 23 percent reduction in annual funding for the Maine INBRE consortium, lab officials said. Other partners in Maine INBRE include The Jackson Laboratory, MaineHealth Institute for Research, and 13 colleges and schools in the University of Maine System.
“This is also going to have an impact on our ability to be competitive in the science space, compared to other countries,” said Elisabeth Marnik, the laboratory’s outreach director. “Maybe there’s going to be a brain drain, because if scientists can’t do the work they need to do here, or want to do here, and other countries are willing to take them in, then you will be losing some of those really talented people who could have really big impacts. Maine already has a big issue recruiting talent to the state.”
Gabriella Wilson, a senior from Lewiston at University of Southern Maine, is among the undergrads attending this week’s course at MDIBL. The testing of PFAS contaminants on various organisms not only helps students learn about the potential impacts of such contamination on human health, and provide them with practical lab experience that they cannot get from textbooks, she said, but it also helps support research being done at the lab by professors Iain Drummond and Jane Disney.
“I think it’s really important,” Wilson said of the course, adding that she plans to stay in Maine after graduating from USM and to pursue a career in biomedical research.
Disney, who has long studied how water quality in the area affects human health, said that the loss of funding, even for a few years, could have long-term consequences for Maine and the country as a whole. Steady scientific progress in any field of study requires mentoring of undergraduate and graduate students by established scientists, she said, but fewer opportunities could result in fewer students pursuing science careers.
“There’d be a huge gap for sure. Older scientists might decide they just need to retire early, so who’s mentoring the next generation?” Disney said. “I could see the enterprise falling apart. That’s a concern I have, that this whole thing unravels.”
