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RIGHT NOW ON MATTER OF FACT. IT WAS ONLY 30 YEARS AGO THAT WOMEN WERE INCLUDED IN MEDICAL RESEARCH STUDIES. BEFORE THAT, EVEN THE RATS USED IN STUDIES WERE EXCLUSIVELY MALE. BUT IN 1993, CONGRESS PASSED THE NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH REVITALIZATION ACT, WHICH MANDATED THE INCLUSION OF WOMEN AND MINORITIES IN NIH FUNDED CLINICAL TRIALS. SINCE THEN, LIFE SAVING ADVANCES IN WOMEN’S HEALTH HAVE BEEN MADE. STILL, A RECENT CONGRESSIONALLY MANDATED REPORT FOUND THAT ONLY ABOUT 8% OF NIH GRANT SPENDING BETWEEN 2013 AND 2023 FOCUSED ON WOMEN’S HEALTH RESEARCH. NOW, EVEN THAT LEVEL OF FUNDING IS AT RISK, WITH FEDERAL CUTS TO MORE THAN 1700 MEDICAL RESEARCH GRANTS. OUR CORRESPONDENT DINA DEMETRIUS INTRODUCES US TO TWO WOMEN ON THE FRONT LINES OF FEDERALLY FUNDED WOMEN’S HEALTH RESEARCH TO UNDERSTAND HOW THEIR WORK SHAPES WOMEN’S LIVES AND WHAT’S AT STAKE. IF THAT RESEARCH ENDS. BASICALLY, THE CHEMOTHERAPY DIDN’T KILL THESE TUMOR CELLS. DOCTOR JOAN BRUGGE AND HER RESEARCH TEAM AT HARVARD MEDICAL SCHOOL HAVE BEEN TRYING TO CRACK THE COMPLEX CODE OF HOW TO PERMANENTLY DESTROY OVARIAN CANCER. THESE ARE THE ONES THAT WE’RE TRYING TO FIGURE OUT. WHAT ARE THEIR VULNERABILITIES? MEANWHILE, IN THE LAB NEXT DOOR, A BREAKTHROUGH. OH MY GOSH, PAMONA, THIS IS GREAT. YEAH, WE’VE BEEN TRYING TO DO THIS FOR YEARS. FINALLY, THEY HAVE OVARIAN TUMOR CELLS THRIVING ENOUGH IN CULTURE TO CONDUCT THE EXPERIMENTS THEY’VE BEEN WAITING TO DO. AND IN A THIRD BRUGGE LAB, POSTDOC FELLOW MIKE OLIPHANT HELPED DETECT THE EARLIEST BREAST CANCER CELLS THAT CARRY CHROMOSOMAL CHANGES. NOW WE CAN HOPEFULLY MAKE REALLY CRITICAL INSIGHTS AND BE ABLE TO FIND WAYS TO PREVENT, YOU KNOW, THESE WOMEN WHO NORMALLY UNDERGO VERY, YOU KNOW, TRAUMATIC, VERY SERIOUS SURGERIES TO PREVENT CANCER. MORE THAN HALF OF THE RESEARCH IN BRUGGE LABS IS FEDERALLY FUNDED. BUT ON MAY 15TH, THE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES NOTIFIED BRUGGE THAT HER GRANTS FOR ONGOING BREAST CANCER RESEARCH AND FOR A POSTDOC FELLOW WITH SPECIAL SKILLS IN OVARIAN CANCER RESEARCH HAD BEEN TERMINATED. MY KNEES JUST BUCKLED AND I ACTUALLY HAD TO SIT DOWN BECAUSE IT WAS IT WAS JUST SUCH A VISCERAL, GUT GUT RESPONSE. IT WAS LIKE THIS GUT PUNCH. THERE WAS NO REASON. IT WAS ACROSS THE BOARD. ALL HARVARD GRANTS WERE CUT. IT’S AN EXTRAORDINARY NEW CHALLENGE FOR BRUGGE, WHO 40 YEARS AGO HELPED PIONEER THE USE OF VIRUSES IN UNDERSTANDING AND TREATING CANCER, A PATH FORGED IN COLLEGE BY THE DEATH OF HER 20 YEAR OLD SISTER, PATSY OF GLIOBLASTOMA. IT KEEPS ME ON FOCUS, FOR SURE, AND I THINK MY MOTIVATION FOR DOING IT IS IS BECAUSE OF THAT. WOMEN ARE NOT JUST SMALL MEN. WOMEN HAVE DIFFERENT CHROMOSOMES. THAT MEANS EVERY CELL IN YOUR BODY IS DIFFERENT FROM AN XY CELL. DOCTOR MARSHA STEFANICK IS THE LONGTIME PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR FOR ONE OF FOUR REGIONAL CENTERS OF THE WOMEN’S HEALTH INITIATIVE, OR A 30 YEAR OLD STUDY THAT CHANGED MEDICAL PRACTICE FOR HORMONE THERAPY AND CARDIOVASCULAR AND BONE HEALTH. WITH DATA FROM NEARLY 162,000 WOMEN, THE CURRENT WOMEN’S HEALTH INITIATIVE INFRASTRUCTURE IS A BACKBONE FOR OTHER ANCILLARY STUDIES. THIS IS A COHORT THAT WE’VE BEEN FOLLOWING SINCE THEY WERE 50 TO 79. SO IT’S TREMENDOUS LONG TERM AGING RESEARCH. THE NIH IS NATIONAL HEART, LUNG AND BLOOD INSTITUTE SUPPORTS THE WITH A REPORTED $10 MILLION A YEAR. FOUNDED IN 1993 BY THE FIRST WOMAN TO HEAD THE NIH DIRECTOR, BERNADINE HEALY, WE ALSO HAD BACK THEN A POLITICAL CAUCUS OF WOMEN THAT WERE ON BOTH SIDES OF THE AISLE. THEY DID NOT SEE IT AS A RED BLUE SITUATION. THEY SAW IT VERY MUCH AS A WOMEN’S HEALTH ISSUE, AND THEY WERE FUNDAMENTAL TO GETTING THE WOMEN’S HEALTH INITIATIVE FUNDED. IN APRIL, WAS NOTIFIED THAT THERE WERE FOUR REGIONAL CENTERS WOULD BE CUT, AND LATER THE COORDINATING CENTER. AFTER A WEEK, HHS PUBLICLY WALKED THAT BACK. WE’VE GOT OUR INFORMATION ABOUT HOW WE PROCEED TO SECURE THE FUNDING FOR ANOTHER TWO YEARS AND FOUR MONTHS. THAT SAID, OUR REAL HOPE IS THAT WE’RE GOING TO CONTINUE THIS COHORT FOR 5 TO 10 YEARS BECAUSE WE STILL HAVE 42,000 WOMEN, STEFANICK SAYS. IT’S A REPRIEVE, BUT GOOD RESEARCH NEEDS A LONGER TIME HORIZON. WE’RE USED TO THE POLITICS AFFECTING THE SCIENTIFIC PRIORITIES OF THE COUNTRY, BUT TO HAVE SOMETHING LIKE WHAT’S HAPPENING NOW, THIS IS JUST UNPRECEDENTED BECAUSE OF THE LEVEL OF UNCERTAINTY, THE LEVEL OF UNCERTAINTY, BUT JUST THE RASH CUTTING WITHOUT CONSIDERATION OF WHAT’S BEING CUT. WHILE SOME APPLAUD A VARIETY OF BUDGET CUTS TO ADDRESS A BALLOONING DEFICIT, STEFANICK LIKENS IT TO A STORY ABOUT AN INJURED VETERAN WHO HAD SHRAPNEL IN MY ARM. AND I’M SO GRATEFUL THAT THE SURGEONS PICKED IT OUT PIECE BY PIECE AND DIDN’T JUST CUT OFF MY ARM. SO I THINK THAT’S THE WAY WE NEED TO GO ABOUT REDUCING THE DEFICIT IS BE THOUGHTFUL, PICK OUT THE PIECES, BUT DON’T JUST CUT OFF THE ARM. BOTH STEFANICK AND BRUGGE SAY THEY’RE YOUNG RESEARCHERS PUSHING THE NEXT FRONTIER OF WOMEN’S HEALTH ARE AS VITAL TO WOMEN AS THE DISCOVERIES ALREADY MADE. WHAT IS THE STRATEGY NOW THAT YOUR RESEARCH FUNDING HAS BEEN CUT? SO THE MOST IMPORTANT THING IS FOR US TO TRY TO FIND FUNDING TO REPLACE THE FUNDING THAT WAS LOST, SO THAT I DON’T HAVE TO LET ANYONE GO. AND THEN WHAT WE’RE DOING IS STRATEGIZING TO FIGURE OUT WHAT WE CAN WE SALVAGE FOR RESEARCH THAT WE HAVE. WHAT ARE THE LEAST IMPACTFUL CUTS? AND THEN BASICALLY KEEP EXPENSES AS LOW AS WE CAN SO THAT WE CAN KEEP GOING. IN BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, I’M DINA DEMETRIOS, FOR MATTER OF FACT. WE REACHED OUT TO THE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES FOR A COMMENT ABOUT T