U.S. Rep. Jake Auchincloss visits UMass Chan to discuss research funding cuts, point-of-care clinical trials | U.S. Congressman Jake Auchincloss Of Massachusetts 4th District

UMass Chan Medical School leaders and scientists welcomed U.S. Rep. Auchincloss to campus on Monday, Sept. 21, for a tour of research laboratories and an open discussion on federal funding changes and other issues impacting the momentum of basic, translational and biomedical research discoveries.

“It's a tragedy. For all the patients who could be treated and won't be, and for the young investigators who will give up, and for the economic development that won't be continued,” Congressman Auchincloss said about the reduction in National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding in recent years.

Chancellor David McManus, MD’02, ScM’12, MBA, Terence R. Flotte, MD, the Elisabeth Chair for the Dean of Medicine, executive deputy chancellor, provost and dean of the T.H. Chan School of Medicine; and Kate Fitzgerald, PhD, the Worcester Foundation for Biomedical Research Chair III, professor and executive vice chancellor for research, chief research officer of UMass Chan and chief of the Division of Innate Immunity, led the tour and discussion with Auchincloss.

Beth McCormick, PhD, the Worcester Foundation for Biomedical Research Chair II and chair and professor of microbiology, explained how three NIH grants that have been continuously funded since 1996, went unfunded last year.

Dr. McCormick said the funding for one award that had ultimately led to the creation of a startup and clinical trials of a potential ulcerative colitis therapy was pulled back “in the eleventh hour” by the NIH due to the agency’s forward-funding approach.

“We were positioned to build on the next phase of the program, and then we had to come to a grinding halt. Infrastructure has become stagnant. Momentum has been sort of lost,” McCormick said. “The science didn’t fail. The program didn’t fail. The funding architecture certainly failed.”

Chancellor McManus thanked the congressman for his support behind the scenes promoting Gov. Maura Healey’s Discovery, Research and Innovation for a Vibrant Economy (DRIVE) legislation, which could help protect the institution’s research enterprise, accelerate scientific discoveries and boost the state’s economy.

“There's no industry with a higher multiplier than biotech. Not defense, not energy, not robotics. Biotech is number one. These are good dollars spent for Massachusetts,” Auchincloss said.

Auchincloss is leading an effort to promote the Cures in Care Initiative, a bi-partisan legislation that would create a network of point-of-care clinical trial platforms to address rare diseases and reduce the time required to launch Phase I trials. Auchincloss represents Massachusetts’ 4^th congressional district and is a member of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce and its Subcommittee on Health. He plays a direct role in FDA, NIH, public health and biomedical innovation policy.

Faculty members participating in the visit included McCormick; Jennifer E. Adair, PhD, vice chair and professor of genetic & cellular medicine and associate director of the Horae Gene Therapy Center; Sylvain Cecchini, PhD, associate professor of genetic & cellular medicine; Heather Gray-Edwards, DVM, PhD, associate professor of genetic & cellular medicine; Miguel Sena-Esteves, PhD, associate professor of genetic & cellular medicine; Jonathan K. Watts, PhD, professor of RNA therapeutics; and Jun Xie, PhD, associate professor of genetic & cellular medicine.