Trump cuts threaten ‘irreplaceable' Harvard stockpile of human feces, urine
As Harvard fights the Trump administration in court over the suspension of nearly $3 billion in federal funding, soon there won't be enough money left to keep the freezers running.
The nearly 50 years of collected human feces, urine, blood, tumors and even toenail clippings could have consequential implications for the future health of Americans, and yet, they're at risk of being lost if funding slashed by the Trump administration isn't restored.
The mother lode collection housed at Harvard has supported generations-long chronic disease risk studies that have fundamentally shaped major scientific and medical advancements.
Read more: Funding cuts, lawsuits, foreign students: The latest on Trump's war with Harvard University
The studies have lead to major breakthroughs, including links between cigarettes and cardiovascular disease and alcohol consumption and breast cancer. The research also uncovered the dangers of trans fats, which the U.S. has now largely restricted.
The biological samples collected during the studies are 'irreplaceable,' according to Walter Willett, a professor of epidemiology and nutrition at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and one of the most sought-after nutritionists internationally.
And some of the study participants could even die before the next check-in period, he said.
'No other institution in the world has this data,' Willett wrote in a May 30 court affidavit detailing the impacts of federal funding cuts on his research.
Read more: Over 12,000 Harvard alums lend weight to court battle with Trump in new filing
The money can't be replaced with private funding, Willett said, and Harvard has told him it won't be able to supplement lost dollars.
Willett filed his affidavit last month as part of a lawsuit in which Harvard faculty members are suing the Trump administration. President Donald Trump has gone after the world's wealthiest higher education institution and its funding in the name of antisemitism, claiming Harvard has failed to protect Jewish students, particularly in the wake of the war in Gaza.
Willett's research is funded by two federal grants from the National Cancer Institute at the National Institutes of Health. On May 6, he was informed the funding had been terminated for both the Nurses' Health Study and Health Professionals Follow-Up Study.
The Nurses' Health Study, which began with its first installment in 1976, followed by Willett's involvement in 1989, started tracking a cohort of 116,000 women in order to understand how 'diets and lifestyle relate to the risk of developing cancer,' Willett's affidavit said.
In addition to collected biological samples, much of the data comes from questionnaires filled out by study participants every two years.
The Nurses' Health Study has associated circulating sex hormones and postmenopausal breast cancer risk; connected higher vitamin D levels linked with lower risks of both colon polyps and colon cancer; and played a role in discovering genetic variations involved in cancers and cancer-related factors.
The Health Professionals Follow-up Study is parallel research that has been tracking the diets of 52,000 adult men who have been diagnosed with cancer from all states in America.
'This study collects data about heart attacks, cancer and other conditions that share risk factors with heart disease, such as dementia and Parkinson's disease,' Willett wrote. 'Dozens of other grants studying many diseases have used the dataset collected by this study.'
Read more: 'We are not just fighting for Harvard': For alums, this year feels different
The male-focused study, which has also been used for women's research, has unearthed the harmful effects of trans fat; made connections between healthy plant foods and lower cardiovascular risk; linked dietary patterns and prostate cancer risk; and associated olive oil benefits with a lower risk of dying from dementia.
There is another element of urgency in addition to the uncertain future of the biological samples: Willett says some participants may die before researchers are able to follow up with them next year for new information on their physical and cognitive functions.
'The termination of my grants thus jeopardizes our chance to collect data from the living study participants who have voluntarily contributed personal information over the last four decades,' Willett wrote. 'This would deprive all Americans from the benefits of knowledge about diet, other aspects of lifestyle, and use of medications that enhance their possibilities of living longer and healthier lives.'
Since April, the Trump administration has launched a series of attacks against Harvard.
Nearly $3 billion in federal funding has either been cut or frozen, and there was also a wave of federal research grant terminations.
The Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health announced in April that it was facing a 'significant budget crisis' resulting in layoffs and the non-renewal of two building leases. Since then, every one of the school's direct federal grants have been terminated and the school has even taken to social media to ask for donations.
Federal funding makes up 46% of Harvard Chan School's budget.
Read more: All Ivy League schools are supporting Harvard lawsuit — except these 2
U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon has also told the institution that the federal government would be barring Harvard University from acquiring new federal grants while the university continues to refuse to comply with the administration's demands for change on its campus.
Harvard President Alan Garber wrote in a letter to U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon that they share the same 'common ground,' but the university 'will not surrender its core, legally-protected principles out of fear.'
Read more: Funding cuts, lawsuits, foreign students: The latest on Trump's war with Harvard University
Garber pushed back on the administration via a lawsuit in April. Harvard argues that its constitutional rights have been violated by the government's threats to pull billions of dollars in funding if the school doesn't comply with demands for an overhaul. Following a further $450 million in announced cuts, the university amended its lawsuit.
'No government — regardless of which party is in power — should dictate what private universities can teach, whom they can admit and hire, and which areas of study and inquiry they can pursue,' the suit reads.
Due to the federal cuts, Harvard announced that it has committing $250 million of 'central funding' to support research impacted by suspended and canceled federal grants.
All Ivy League schools are supporting Harvard lawsuit — except these 2
Embassies directed to resume processing Harvard University student visas
Over 12,000 Harvard alums lend weight to court battle with Trump in new filing
'We are not just fighting for Harvard': For alums, this year feels different
What a monk, a librarian and a dentist have to do with Harvard's fight with Trump
Read the original article on MassLive.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
CNBC
4 minutes ago
- CNBC
CCTV Script 12/08/2025
On Monday, local time, U.S. President Trump nominated E.J. Antoni, Chief Economist of the conservative think tank Heritage Foundation, to serve as the Commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). This move comes shortly after Trump criticized the unfavorable U.S. employment data as being manipulated and subsequently dismissed the previous commissioner. The market has been closely watching who would take over the position and whether this change would impact the statistical reporting of U.S. economic data. Antoni's appointment still requires confirmation by the U.S. Senate before he can officially assume the role. He has long been a critic of the BLS, advocating for a comprehensive, top-to-bottom review of the bureau. Prior to Trump's public criticism and the dismissal of the previous commissioner, the BLS had been a relatively low-profile agency, rarely entering the public eye. It operates under the U.S. Department of Labor but maintains a degree of independence. The BLS is responsible for collecting crucial data on employment, inflation, and wages, which serve as vital references for business and policy decisions, emphasizing the importance of being free from political interference. In addition to the change in leadership, the BLS is also facing challenges and controversies due to budget cuts. Some analysts have noted that due to insufficient staffing, the BLS has ceased collecting inflation data in certain cities, relying more on estimation methods. Recently, concerns about the credibility of the BLS economic data have also begun to emerge on Wall Street. This raises questions about the potential impact of these changes on the accuracy and reliability of the data that businesses and policymakers depend on. Prominent figures, including Jeffrey Gundlach, known as the "Bond King," and Michael Gapen, an economist at Morgan Stanley, have expressed concerns that U.S. economic data has become unreliable. They argue that this could lead to skepticism about the quality of data released by U.S. government agencies. Currently, the market is closely watching the upcoming release of the U.S. Consumer Price Index (CPI) report for July, scheduled for Tuesday local time. This inflation report is expected to provide critical insights into the state of the economy. Analysts point out that concerns over inflation data performance led to a decline in the three major U.S. stock indices overnight. Market forecasts suggest that the July CPI will show a monthly increase of 0.2% and a yearly increase of 2.8%. When excluding volatile food and energy prices, the core CPI is expected to rise 0.3% monthly and 3.1% yearly. The market is also hoping to glean signals from the latest inflation data regarding the Federal Reserve's potential rate-cut path. However, Wall Street remains divided on the timing of rate cuts. One camp believes the Fed will cut rates as early as September, arguing that such a move is overdue. This divergence in expectations highlights the uncertainty surrounding monetary policy and its impact on the economy. 'I think the rate right now is modestly because rates are lower, therefore stocks must go higher, but the damage that perhaps modestly restrictive rates are doing to the economy and eventually corporate profits would be reduced." However, another camp believes that the Federal Reserve will continue to wait and see, monitoring the impact of tariffs on inflation before making any decisions. "We don't think it'd be September, so the Fed will take this time. Powell, if he doesn't have too much pressure, will continue at his path, which we believe is the case, and we'll likely see the Fed act in December and then aggressively act next year. " Morgan Stanley and Bank of America both predict that the Federal Reserve will not cut rates this year, while JP Morgan Chase anticipates three rate cuts in 2025.
Wall Street Journal
4 minutes ago
- Wall Street Journal
Gold Edges Lower Amid Prospects of Easing Geopolitical Tensions
2351 GMT — Gold edges lower in the early Asian session amid prospects of easing geopolitical tensions that typically reduce the safe-haven appeal of the precious metal. Although Friday's meeting between U.S. President Trump and Russian President Putin ended without any breakthrough, Trump told European leaders that he was open to offering U.S. security guarantees to Ukraine, according to several European officials. Trump said Putin had accepted that any peace in the Russia-Ukraine conflict would need to include the presence of Western troops in Ukraine. Spot gold is 0.2% lower at $3,327.58/oz. (
CNN
10 minutes ago
- CNN
Trump gave China the AI chips it wanted. Beijing isn't saying thank you
Asia China AI Donald Trump FacebookTweetLink In a surprising reversal of the United States' years-long technology restrictions on China, President Donald Trump last month allowed Nvidia to resume sales of a key AI chip designed specifically for the Chinese market. Yet rather than celebrating, Beijing's response has been noticeably lukewarm, despite having long urged Washington to ease the stringent export controls. In the weeks since the policy U-turn, Beijing has called the chip a security risk, summoned Nvidia for explanations and discouraged its companies from using it. The less-than-welcoming sentiment reflects Beijing's drive to build a self-sufficient semiconductor supply chain – and its confidence in the progress its rapidly advancing chip industry has made. But the cold shoulder may also represent some political posturing. Despite significant advances in its semiconductor sector, China still needs America's chips and technology. Experts said China's national champion Huawei has developed chips with performance comparable to — and in some cases surpassing — the newly approved Nvidia chip. However, China still wants the more advanced AI processors that remain blocked under US export controls. In the years since Trump first imposed tech restrictions on Huawei during his first term, China's chip technology has made significant strides, spurred by the frustration that mounted as Washington piled on export controls, said Xiang Ligang, director-general of a Beijing-based technology industry group and an advisor to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. 'We have this capability, it's not as they imagine – that if China is blocked, China won't be able to function, or that China will be finished,' he said. To him, the policy about-face only reflects the importance of having a wholly homegrown chip supply chain. 'For Chinese companies, we may only have one choice if we wish to ensure a relatively secure supply of chips – that means relying on our own domestically produced chips,' Xiang said. That may be China's goal, but in the high-stakes AI race, with all its national security implications, the US remains the leader, at least for now. The chip in focus is Nvidia's H20, which was released by the AI chip leader last year to maintain access to the Chinese market following strict export controls put in place under the Biden administration that stopped the export of chips with high processing power. Last month, Trump greenlit the sales of the chip to China after banning it in April as the US trade frictions with China deepened. Trump has justified his decision by calling the chip 'obsolete,' as it lags behind the company's cutting-edge AI processors like Blackwell or H100, from which H20 is derived. He and his officials appeared to have embraced a view long promoted by Nvidia's CEO Jensen Huang – that US can maintain its tech leadership only through ensuring its chips remain the global standard. 'You want to sell the Chinese enough that their developers get addicted to the American technology stack,' Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said last month. But the dramatic reversal has fueled questions about Trump's transactional approach to national security – once considered off-limits to bargaining. China, on the other hand, is alarmed by the alleged security risks of Nvidia's H20s like 'tracking and positioning' and 'remote shutdown' features, capabilities that some US lawmakers have called for but Nvidia denies it has placed in its chips. China's cyberspace watchdog and industry ministry have since summoned the American chip giant over the security concerns and urged firms to avoid H20 chips, a development which was previously reported by Bloomberg. One major Chinese tech company which has developed its AI models has received notice from the authorities urging it to exercise caution in the use of H20s, and advising it not to purchase them, a company insider said on the condition of anonymity. CNN has reached out to the ministry and the cyberspace authorities for comment. An Nvidia spokesperson told CNN that NVIDIA 'does not have 'backdoors' in our chips that would give anyone a remote way to access or control them.' 'Banning the sale of H20 in China would only harm US economic and technology leadership with zero national security benefit,' the spokesperson added. But China believes the US isn't playing fairly, Xiang said. 'What we actually want, you refuse to sell us. For the things you already consider obsolete, you still want to dump them into our market and occupy our market. Do you really think we're that naive?' he said. Despite Beijing's concerns and the H20's reduced performance, the chips remain highly sought after by Chinese companies. Equity research firm Bernstein estimated that shipment of the chips to China this year would have reached 1.5 million units, or about 23 billion in revenue, without Trump's export restrictions. Major buyers include Chinese tech giants such as TikTok owner ByteDance, Alibaba and Tencent. While Huawei's top AI chips excel in computing power – one of the key measures in evaluating processors' performance – in comparison with H20, they fall short in terms of memory bandwidth, which determines how much data can move between a chip's memory and computing unit. That bandwidth depends on a technology known as High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) used in AI chips to ensure efficient data transmission in AI model training. China's top HBM maker CXMT, or ChangXin Memory Technologies, is still about three to four years behind industry leaders like South Korea's SK Hynix and Samsung, and American Micron, according to MS Hwang, research director at Counterpoint Research, a research firm. Last year, the Biden administration further tightened export controls on China, including restrictions on HBM sales, forcing Chinese companies to rely on existing stockpiles. Beijing has requested Washington to lift restrictions on HBM as part of the trade deal negotiations, Financial Times reported this week. Key appeal of H20 for Chinese companies also lies in Huawei's limited production capacity and Nvidia's well-established ecosystem, said Qingyuan Lin, senior analyst at Bernstein focusing China's semiconductor industry. 'Even when you want to completely replace the H20 demand with the local guys, they're not able to deliver the amount of chips that's needed,' he said. The supply bottlenecks stem from constraints in scaling up production of both the manufacturing of computing units of the AI chips and the integration of various components in them, a technology known as advanced packaging in the industry, Lin said. Bernstein estimated that Huawei's shipments of its advanced AI chips in 2025 would amount to around 700,000 units, still far short of the demand in the country. CNN has reached out to Huawei for comment. Meanwhile, Nvidia's powerful ecosystem, which integrates its chips with its software platform, has created what experts call a 'moat,' making it difficult and costly for AI developers who train models on its software to switch to alternatives. 'The H20 comes with a complete ecosystem covering both hardware and software support, ensuring better compatibility and ease of integration,' said Brady Wang, associate director at Counterpoint. 'This ecosystem maturity is still a challenge for many Chinese-developed chips, making the H20 more attractive despite its cost disadvantage.' Still, experts said China's rapid progress in semiconductor technology should not be underestimated. Years of tightening export controls have injected both urgency and opportunity into Beijing's push for self-sufficiency, Lin said. While chipmaking technology appeared to stall after Huawei's 2023 flagship smartphone showcased advanced chips that American officials had deemed extremely difficult to produce, domestic chipmaking equipment companies have been steadily gaining ground, he said. 'The local guys actually had very little chance to gain share from the global players because of the technology gap, but export controls created a market that didn't exist before and accelerated the domestic substitution,' he said. Bernstein projects that the percentage of homemade AI chips in China will surge from 17% in 2023 to 55% by 2027, while American suppliers like Nvidia and AMD will shrink to 45% from 83%. In April, Huang of Nvidia met with Trump in Washington, urging the administration to loosen export controls on chips and saying that the diffusion of American AI technology around the world needs to be accelerated. 'There's no question that Huawei is one of the most formidable technology companies in the world…they made enormous progress in the last several years,' he said. 'China is right behind us. We're very, very close.' CNN's Hassan Tayir and Fred He contributed reporting.
