On Tuesday, June 23 from 1 to 2 p.m., WCOM 103.5 FM hosts a frank discussion about what has happened to the National Institutes of Health, the largest public funder of biomedical research in the world, over the past year.

The numbers tell a sobering story. By the end of 2025, 5,844 NIH grants had been cancelled or suspended. More than 800 focused on infectious diseases. Other targeted research areas included misinformation, vaccine hesitancy, and studies of underrepresented ethnic and gender groups. The agency lost more than 4,800 employees from a workforce of roughly 20,000, including 1,200 to 1,300 direct layoffs in April alone. New grant-making fell 24 percent below the ten-year average. Courts have ordered thousands of grants reinstated, but roughly 2,600 remain frozen, representing about 1.4 billion dollars in stalled investment.

Dollars are only part of the picture. Many researchers have been asked to alter their grants, delete or change words, or shift study populations to comply with the political agenda of the current administration. Academic freedom is under threat in ways that do not show up in any spreadsheet.

Behind every cancelled grant is a research project paused, a clinical trial in limbo, a postdoc looking for another line of work, a patient who will not benefit from a discovery that never happened. This is not money we declined to spend. It is seed we planted and then refused to water. The Triangle region, home to one of the country’s densest concentrations of biomedical talent, feels these cuts up close.

Host Larry Solomon, Ph.D., himself a former Scientific Program Manager at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, sits down with three former NIH program officers: Elizabeth M. Ginexi, Ph.D., formerly of the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health; Jennifer L. Troyer, Ph.D., formerly of the National Human Genome Research Institute; and  Sylvia Chou, Ph.D., M.P.H., formerly of the National Cancer Institute.

All four are members of 27 uNIHted, an advocacy organization of former NIH staff working to defend American biomedical research.

Tune in to WCOM 103.5 FM in Carrboro, or stream live at wcomfm.org.