Weekly Health Links 4/20/2025
Proposed 40% Budget Cut for NIH; A New Gap Map for Science; A Roadmap for Far-UVC; Signatures of Possible Alien Life; What's In and What's Out In US Global Health Aid
A new HHS budget proposal proposes a 40% cut to the overall NIH budget and major reorganizations within HHS:
“[HHS] wants to cut down the number of NIH institutes and centers from 27 to just eight.”
“Four institutes and centers would be scrapped entirely, including the National Institute of Nursing Research, the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, the Fogarty International Center, and the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities.”
The others would be combined within five larger institutes:
The National Institute on Body Systems
The National Institute on Neuroscience and Brain Research
The National Institute of General Medical Sciences
The National Institute of Disability Related Research
The National Institute of Behavioral Health
“Indirect costs for academic centers will be capped at 15%, even though a federal judge earlier this month permanently blocked the implementation of this cap. The NIH is currently appealing that decision.”
It will be up to Congress to decide whether to enact this budget request.
Convergent Research has put together Gap Map, a phenomenal web portal for exploring unsolved challenges in the natural sciences. For any given unsolved problem with an R&D gap, such as Insufficient Surveillance of Biothreats, or In-Silico Molecular Simulation is Slow and Kludgy, Gap Map includes information on:
“R&D Gaps: we’ve focused on “fundamental development” gaps that may need coordinated research programs to solve by building a mid-sized piece of infrastructure.”
“Foundational Capabilities: tools, technologies, data (mid-sized science infrastructure) that could fill the related R&D gap”
“Resources: for each foundational capability, the initiatives and organizations working toward it; relevant research papers, roadmaps, and technology seeds; and ideas (proposals, whitepapers, essays, etc.) illustrating the capability.”
Blueprint Biosecurity has released a phenomenal new blueprint for how to accelerate advanced development and deployment of far-UVC germicidal light fixtures for suppression of indoor transmission of infectious diseases for both better pandemic preparedness and better health more generally. A few highlights from the executive summary:
“Germicidal Ultraviolet light (GUV) has been used in water treatment for over 100 years. Studies in the 1940s showed the promise of treating the air above our heads with GUV—so called ‘upper room UV’—to control the spread of measles in schools and has been used for decades to control the spread of drug resistant tuberculosis.”
“Far-UVC is a new form of GUV. Because it is strongly absorbed by proteins in the outer layer of human skin and eyes, it can inactivate a wide range of pathogens with minimal penetration into and effects on human tissues. This enables higher human exposure limits, unlocking the potential for disinfecting occupied spaces continuously while achieving significantly improved air cleaning over current alternatives.”
“Far-UVC is also silent, energy efficient, commercially viable at scale, less vulnerable to engendering resistance than pharmaceuticals, and can be deployed in advance of an outbreak to help prevent a pandemic from occurring in the first place.”
Scientists have detected possible signatures of life on another planet!
“Now a team of researchers is offering what it contends is the strongest indication yet of extraterrestrial life, not in our solar system but on a massive planet, known as K2-18b, that orbits a star 120 light-years from Earth. A repeated analysis of the exoplanet’s atmosphere suggests an abundance of a molecule that on Earth has only one known source: living organisms such as marine algae.”
““It is in no one’s interest to claim prematurely that we have detected life,” said Nikku Madhusudhan, an astronomer at the University of Cambridge and an author of the new study, at a news conference on Tuesday. Still, he said, the best explanation for his group’s observations is that K2-18b is covered with a warm ocean, brimming with life.”
““This is a revolutionary moment,” Dr. Madhusudhan said. “It’s the first time humanity has seen potential biosignatures on a habitable planet.””
What’s In and What’s Out in US global health programming, going forward?
“The administration has slashed the majority of USAID’s global programming, but some of it will continue under the leadership of the U.S. State Department. USAID leadership sent out an Excel sheet and a PowerPoint dated April 8th — of which Devex obtained a copy — which highlighted 24 “central awards to support global health programming” that will continue under the agency’s “narrower focus.””
“It framed the awards as “What’s In” and “What’s Out”...The prioritized activities fall within four baskets: direct health service delivery; procurement of essential health commodities and supply chain management; emergency response to infectious disease outbreaks; and data analytics, monitoring, and evaluation to ensure accountability for results, cost effectiveness, and efficiency. Some of the programs fall solely in one basket, while others overlap.”
“What’s now “deprioritized,” according to the PowerPoint, are awards with a focus on “broad and stand alone behavior change, health systems strengthening, knowledge management, broad research, and technical assistance (not directly tied to lifesaving service delivery activities).””