No causal biology without diversity: a Perspective
As human data are poised to deliver causal targets and more precise interventions, caving to anti-DEI rhetoric in science is a costly mistake
Amid the Trump administration’s looming threats to slash NIH and its funding of academic institutions, there is a subtler but no less disruptive shift permeating translational research — the growing sense among U.S. investigators that they will be punished for studying human diversity. The more academics and biopharmas cave to this messaging, the greater the losses will be to causal human biology and precision medicine. Probing diversity within and between populations is foundational to progress in both arenas.
The rejection of DEI principles by the Trump administration has already begun impacting biomedical research. Coarse keyword-based hunts for DEI-influenced projects to defund are underway at NIH, NSF, the VA and more. Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) has a public database of “Woke DEI Grants at NSF” that illustrates the range of research on the chopping block...
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