Scientist. Associate Professor at Boston University. Systems Biology, gene regulation, immunology, cancer. He/him 🏳️‍🌈

Boston, MA
Joined August 2018
Standing up for science in Boston!
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Juan Fuxman Bass retweeted
Without NIH funds to run research labs at academic institutions, as a country we cannot train PhD students. No physician scientists. No undergraduates get experience in labs. Nothing. Industry does none of these things. Other countries will have to take the lead.
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Invest in NIH. Invest in life
It's clear that many do not understand what @NIH-funded research does to improve health. It's time to revive a study published 10 years ago that provides incredible information about this. link in the comment Every single new drug approved by the FDA from 2010–2016 was built on NIH-funded research—that’s all 210 drugs. But what the public sees is just the tip of the iceberg. Pharma takes credit for the final product, but beneath each drug developed, there are ~20 years of basic research, and 90% of the cost is from basic research funded by the NIH, which discovers drug targets, understands disease mechanisms, and creates life-saving treatments. Figuring out how cancer evades the immune system, how addiction rewires the brain, and how heart disease develops is the role of the NIH, creating the foundation for the breakthrough drugs that come 20 years later, and the NIH does all that with only 0.8% of the US budget. Without NIH, there would be no cancer immunotherapy, no anti-overdose medication, no anti-heart attack or stroke medication, no cutting-edge treatments. If NIH funding is cut, the iceberg will melt. That means fewer cures, more suffering, and more lives lost. The science beneath the surface keeps us afloat. Invest in NIH. Invest in life
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Juan Fuxman Bass retweeted
It's clear that many do not understand what @NIH-funded research does to improve health. It's time to revive a study published 10 years ago that provides incredible information about this. link in the comment Every single new drug approved by the FDA from 2010–2016 was built on NIH-funded research—that’s all 210 drugs. But what the public sees is just the tip of the iceberg. Pharma takes credit for the final product, but beneath each drug developed, there are ~20 years of basic research, and 90% of the cost is from basic research funded by the NIH, which discovers drug targets, understands disease mechanisms, and creates life-saving treatments. Figuring out how cancer evades the immune system, how addiction rewires the brain, and how heart disease develops is the role of the NIH, creating the foundation for the breakthrough drugs that come 20 years later, and the NIH does all that with only 0.8% of the US budget. Without NIH, there would be no cancer immunotherapy, no anti-overdose medication, no anti-heart attack or stroke medication, no cutting-edge treatments. If NIH funding is cut, the iceberg will melt. That means fewer cures, more suffering, and more lives lost. The science beneath the surface keeps us afloat. Invest in NIH. Invest in life
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The person keeping you from dying from Listeria is a federal employee. The person making sure your plane doesn’t fall out of the sky is a federal employee. The person busting up drug rings is a federal employee. The person prosecuting terrorists is a federal employee.
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Juan Fuxman Bass retweeted
Read our latest issue in full ➡️ bit.ly/42Pq2wX
“...to care is an act not of weakness, but of strength.” The Lancet response: hubs.li/Q035Ld5H0
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To everyone thinking that cutting the research budget makes sense because of public debt, I want to remind them of Mary Lasker's words: "If you think research is expensive, try disease" Doing science is not a luxury we can't afford. It is investing in our future.
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Juan Fuxman Bass retweeted
If you want to “Make America Healthy Again,” one of the worst things you can do is slash the budget of the world's largest public funder of biomedical research, the National Institutes of Health.
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Here’s a reason why the incoming NIH Director, health economist Jay Bhattacharya, should know cutting indirect costs at NIH is self-defeating and stupid. Every $1 invested by NIH returns $2.5. So $4B “savings” is actually $10B we lost. nih.gov/about-nih/what-we-do…
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Juan Fuxman Bass retweeted
Not only has the NIH supported the most important drugs and treatments to date, the modern era of genomically driven drug discovery justifies greatly *increasing* the NIH budget. There are thousands of targets with known associatons in humans simply waiting to be characterized.
This is a list of blockbuster drugs in 2024. Guess how many can trace their origins to NIH funded research? All of them.
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Juan Fuxman Bass retweeted
Science is key to the US's success but this government's intention to dramatically reduce the part of the federal grants that go to the university (in addition to the researchers; the "indirects") is like removing the unseen roots of a tree & expecting it to continue to flourish.
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Juan Fuxman Bass retweeted
Gene editing technology began by people studying salt marshes. Ozempic began by folks studying the venom of Gila monsters. Support for basic science has empowered us to understand our world. Tethering it to applications health has transformed and saved countless lives.
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Juan Fuxman Bass retweeted
Resource on state economic activity & jobs that will be affected by $4B cut to NIH funding of research institutions-click on your state to see the impact #NIH #indirects unitedformedicalresearch.org…
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This will gut the #UniversityofTexas, the largest recipient of NIH funds in #Texas, along with every other US research university and biomedical institute "Indirect costs" aren't padding. They fund core infrastructure for biomed research, from shared staff to keeping lights on
Last year, $9B of the $35B that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) granted for research was used for administrative overhead, what is known as “indirect costs.” Today, NIH lowered the maximum indirect cost rate research institutions can charge the government to 15%, above what many major foundations allow and much lower than the 60%+ that some institutions charge the government today. This change will save more than $4B a year effective immediately.
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Juan Fuxman Bass retweeted
Imagine running a restaurant & suddenly only having budget for ingredients & chefs—no rent, electricity, heat, water, support staff, insurance, trash, toilet paper. This is what 'cutting indirects' did to every major biomedical center & hospital in the US.
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Juan Fuxman Bass retweeted
I can't emphasize enough how disastrous the NIH cuts will be. If implemented as proposed, it could decimate universities and college towns. And it could mean every one of us in the US and around the world will experience shorter and less healthy lives.
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Juan Fuxman Bass retweeted
My district is home to @NIH and thousands of nonpartisan scientists who spur innovation and research cures for cystic fibrosis, lung cancer, heart disease and more. President Trump and the GOP are jeopardizing vital medical research.
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Juan Fuxman Bass retweeted
Bio-leaders, we must SPEAK OUT. Broad, indiscriminate cuts to the FDA, NIH, and CDC threaten the very foundation that makes the U.S. the global leader in biotech innovation. ALL systems have flaws—fix them with a scalpel, not an axe. Protect science. Protect patients.
The FDA is THE gold standard reg authority in the world… critical for bringing innovation to patients with public trust + critical for US leadership in biotech. Any reform should be with scalpel, not axe!
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When you think about the institutions that would be hit hard by the cap in indirect costs from NIH, you quickly hit on research powerhouses in red states: the Cleveland Clinic, MD Anderson, UAB and more. They are core economic drivers for their states. Will this be considered?
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