Trump’s DEI Crackdown Threatens Alzheimer’s Research
The Trump administration has cancelled a new round of scientific grants for brain health and Alzheimer’s disease research at Emory University and the University of Pittsburgh. These grants allegedly highlight the impacts of racism on the brain, according to The Guardian.
“This kind of clear political interference – that’s not a good way to do science,” said Ann Cohen, an associate professor of psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh, whose grant was canceled. “I haven’t even thought much about the why this is being done because it’s so scientifically wrong that I can’t get past that piece.”
The Trump administration cancelling scientific grants
At least three grants were canceled between the two universities, bringing the total number of grant cancellations to $15 million. The grants focused on examining how discrimination affects long-term brain health.
“Those things we’re measuring are scientifically valid concepts,” said University of Pittsburgh associate professor of epidemiology Andrea Rosso, who co-led a grant canceled by the administration. “Whoever was doing this saw the words they didn’t like in our grant,” she told The Guardian.
Around 21.3% of Black Americans aged 70 and older live with Alzheimer’s disease, according to the Alzheimers assoociation. Whilst most of the individuals diagnosed with Alzheimers are white, Black Americans are twice as likely to develop the disease, but they face systemic underdiagnosis and higher rates of mixed brain pathologies.
The Trump administration cancelling $783m in NIH funding
This is another example of the Trump administration interfering with scientific research. In 2025, the Supreme Court allowed the Trump Administration to cut grants issued by the National Institutes of Health in a bid to end federal DEI efforts. It allowed the administration to cancel $783m in NIH funding.
The NIH started cutting thousands of research grants related to several topics criticized by the Trump administration, including DEI, HIV/AIDS, and COVID-19. The cuts destroyed entire fields of study, including investigations into the health of transgender people, according to an analysis by Nature. The loss of funding led several research institutions, such as Stanford University in California, to lay off staff.
Image: Keith Tanner
