Health
As Trump Targets Researchers, Europe Makes a Pitch to Attract Scientists
As the Trump administration slashes support to research institutions and threatens to freeze federal funding to universities like Harvard and Columbia, European leaders are offering financial help to U.S.-based researchers and hoping to benefit from what they are calling a “gigantic miscalculation.”
“Nobody could imagine a few years ago that one of the great democracies of the world would eliminate research programs on the pretext that the word ‘diversity’ appeared in its program,” President Emmanuel Macron of France said on Monday.
He was speaking at the Sorbonne University in Paris during an event called Choose Europe for Science that was organized by the French government and the European Union.
It was unthinkable, Mr. Macron said, alluding also to the withdrawal of researchers’ visas in the United States, that a nation whose “economy depends so heavily on free science” would “commit such an error.”
Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, announced an investment of 500 million euros, or $566 million, at the conference to “make Europe a magnet for researchers” over the next two years.
Although that amount is not much compared to the billions in cuts American universities face, it comes on top of the $105 billion international research program called Horizon Europe that supports scientific breakthroughs, like genome sequencing and mRNA vaccines, Ms. Von der Leyen said.
She did not mention the United States by name, but she described a global environment where “fundamental, free and open research is questioned.”
“What a gigantic miscalculation!” she said.
In Europe, there is a widespread feeling that Mr. Trump has abandoned America’s traditional support for liberty, free speech and democracy through his embrace of autocrats and the assault on science and academia. That has created strains but also a sense of opportunity on the continent, where attracting the best scientific minds to vigorous and independent universities is seen as part of a broader campaign to “rearm” Europe as an independent power.
Over the longer term, the European Commission, the executive arm of the European Union, plans to double grants for researchers who relocate and to enshrine freedom of scientific research into a law called the European Research Area Act.
“The first priority is to ensure that science in Europe remains open and free. That is our calling card,” Ms. von der Leyen said.
The Trump administration’s attack on science and threats to universities were the main impetus for the conference, which was attended by government ministers and prominent researchers from across Europe. Increasingly, the United States is seen as a strategic adversary, and opening doors to American researchers and scientists is viewed as a long-term response to that challenge.
Mr. Macron’s message to scientists was this: “If you love freedom, come help us to remain free.”
France announced its own program to lure U.S.-based researchers last month. The government promised universities and research institutions in the country up to 50 percent of the funding needed to lure international researchers, including those working in areas under pressure from the Trump administration like climate studies and low carbon energy. But no particular funding was announced until Monday, when Mr. Macron said his government would commit $113 million to the program.
Alarms in Europe began sounding when the Trump administration slashed jobs and froze science grants at leading American institutions as part of cost-cutting measures. European dismay increased when the U.S. government attacked diversity programs and attempted to dictate to universities “whom they can admit and hire, and which areas of study and inquiry they can pursue,” in the words of Harvard’s president, Alan M. Garber.
Harvard has filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration over its $2.2 billion federal funding freeze. Mr. Trump mused last week about ending Harvard’s tax-exempt status.
The U.S. government has also fired staff at U.S. centers deemed to be at the pinnacle of scientific research, including at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the National Science Foundation, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health, the world’s largest funder of biomedical research.
At the same time, some federal agencies have removed words from websites and grant applications that were deemed unacceptable to the Trump administration. Among the terms considered taboo are “climate science,” “diversity” and “gender.”
Taken together, the actions have sent a chill through academia and research institutes, with scientists worried not just for their jobs but the long-term viability of their research.
“In the United States, once a paradise for researchers, academic freedom is being challenged. The line between truth and falsehood, between fact and belief, is being weakened,” Elisabeth Borne, France’s education minister, said Monday as she opened the conference.
Universities in France have been at the forefront of attempts to benefit from a potential American brain drain. Aix Marseille University is interviewing some 300 candidates for its Safe Place for Science program, which it launched in March in response to the Trump administration’s cuts. Since then, many other universities and institutions have followed suit.
“Our self-interest, as well as our values, now command us to be the refuge for knowledge wherever it is under pressure,” said Luis Vassy, the president of Sciences Po University in Paris.
François Hollande, a former French president, has proposed a law to create a “scientific refugee” status for researchers threatened for their work in their countries.
However, some university heads and professors have criticized the initiative. They argue that while France is attempting to draw American researchers, it has also been cutting higher education and research budgets to address the country’s ballooning budget deficit.
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Bill Gates is speaking out about his personal experience with Alzheimer’s — and his hope for progress in fighting the disease.
In an essay published this week on his blog at GatesNotes.com, the Microsoft co-founder and tech billionaire, 69, reflected on the difficulty of spending another Father’s Day without his dad, Bill Gates Sr.
The elder Gates passed away in 2020 at the age of 94 after battling Alzheimer’s.
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“It was a brutal experience, watching my brilliant, loving father go downhill and disappear,” Gates wrote in the blog post.
Today, motivated by his own experience with the common dementia, Gates — who serves as chair of the Gates Foundation — is committed to working toward a cure for the common dementia, which currently affects more than seven million Americans, or one in nine people over 65.
Bill Gates and Bill Gates Sr. pose in a meeting room at the Seattle headquarters of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in 2008. (Gates Ventures)
In his blog, Gates expressed optimism about the “massive progress” being made in the fight against Alzheimer’s and other dementias.
Last year, Gates said he visited Indiana University’s School of Medicine in Indianapolis to tour the labs where teams have been researching Alzheimer’s biomarkers.
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“I also got the opportunity to look under the hood of new automated machines that will soon be running diagnostics around the world,” he wrote. “It’s an exciting time in a challenging space.”
One of the biggest breakthroughs in Alzheimer’s research, according to Gates, is blood-based diagnostic tests, which detect the ratio of amyloid plaques in the brain. (Amyloid plaques, clumps of protein that accumulate in the brain, are one of the hallmarks of Alzheimer’s.)
Bill Gates Jr. (right) poses with his father at his graduation ceremony in 1973. (Gates family)
“I’m optimistic that these tests will be a game-changer,” Gates wrote.
Last month, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the first blood-based test for patients 55 years and older, as Fox News Digital reported at the time.
“A simple, accurate and easy-to-run blood test might one day make routine screening possible.”
Traditionally, Gates noted, the primary path to Alzheimer’s diagnosis was either a PET scan (medical imaging) or spinal tap (lumbar puncture), which were usually only performed when symptoms emerged.
The hope is that blood-based tests could do a better job of catching the disease early, decline begins.
The Gates family poses for a photo in 1965. The elder Gates passed away in 2020 at the age of 94 after battling Alzheimer’s. (Gates family)
“We now know that the disease begins 15 to 20 years before you start to see any signs,” Gates wrote.
“A simple, accurate and easy-to-run blood test might one day make routine screening possible, identifying patients long before they experience cognitive decline,” he stated.
Gates said he is often asked, “What is the point of getting diagnosed if I can’t do anything about it?”
To that end, he expressed his optimism for the future of Alzheimer’s treatments, noting that two drugs — Lecanemab (Leqembi) and Donanemab (Kisunla) — have gained FDA approval.
“Both have proven to modestly slow down the progression of the disease, but what I’m really excited about is their potential when paired with an early diagnostic,” Gates noted.
Alzheimer’s disease currently affects more than seven million Americans, or one in nine people over 65. (iStock)
He said he is also hopeful that the blood tests will help speed up the process of enrolling patients in clinical trials for new Alzheimer’s drugs.
To accomplish this, Gates is calling for increased funding for research, which often comes from federal grants.
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“This is the moment to spend more money on research, not less,” he wrote, also stating that “the quest to stop Alzheimer’s has never had more momentum.”
“There is still a huge amount of work to be done — like deepening our understanding of the disease’s pathology and developing even better diagnostics,” Gates went on.
“I am blown away by how much we have learned about Alzheimer’s over the last couple of years.”
Gates pointed out that when his father had Alzheimer’s, it was considered a “death sentence,” but that is starting to change.
“I am blown away by how much we have learned about Alzheimer’s over the last couple of years,” he wrote.
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“I cannot help but be filled with a sense of hope when I think of all the progress being made on Alzheimer’s, even with so many challenges happening around the world. We are closer than ever before to a world where no one has to watch someone they love suffer from this awful disease.”
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FDA authorizes AI tool to predict breast cancer risk
Senior medical analyst Dr. Marc Siegel discusses advancements in artificial intelligence aimed at predicting an individual’s future risk of breast cancer and the increased health risks from cannabis as users age.
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The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved a new, twice-yearly shot — the first and only of its kind — to prevent HIV, the creator of the drug, Gilead Sciences, announced on Wednesday.
Sold under the name Yeztugo, the company’s injectable HIV-1 capsid inhibitor (lenacapavir) reduces the risk of sexually acquired HIV in adults and adolescents.
“This is a historic day in the decades-long fight against HIV,” said Daniel O’Day, chairman and CEO of California-based Gilead Sciences, in a press release.
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The medicine, which only needs to be administered twice a year, has shown “remarkable outcomes in clinical studies,” as Gilead claims it could transform HIV prevention.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved a new, twice-yearly shot, Yeztugo, to prevent HIV, the creator of the drug announced on Wednesday. (Gilead Sciences via AP)
The drug is given as an injectable under the skin that the body then slowly absorbs. Individuals must have a negative HIV-1 test prior to starting the treatment.
In large trials last year, the drug was not only nearly 100% effective in its prevention of HIV, but proved superior to once-daily oral medication like Truvada, another drug by Gilead.
The drug is given as an injectable under the skin that the body then slowly absorbs. Individuals must have a negative HIV-1 test prior to starting the treatment. (AP Photo/Nardus Engelbrecht)
The journal Science named lenacapavir its 2024 “Breakthrough of the Year.”
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Lenacapavir uses a multi-stage approach that distinguishes it from other approved antiviral medications.
Sold under the name Yeztugo, the company’s injectable HIV-1 capsid inhibitor (lenacapavir) reduces the risk of sexually acquired HIV in adults and adolescents. (iStock)
“While most antivirals act on just one stage of viral replication, lenacapavir is designed to inhibit HIV at multiple stages of its lifecycle,” states the press release from Gilead.
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“Yeztugo is one of the most important scientific breakthroughs of our time and offers a very real opportunity to help end the HIV epidemic,” O’Day said in the press release.
The most commonly reported adverse reactions during clinical trials included injection site reactions, headache and nausea, according to the company.
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