David Hains and Michelle Starr want to help kids who have kidney disease.
The researchers from the Indiana University School of Medicine submitted a grant proposal to the National Institutes of Health to study and treat childhood urinary tract infections, which may be a precursor to one of the deadliest diseases in Indiana. Their project scored well in the competitive application process.
“Any other year this would be a no-brainer,” Hains told Mirror Indy. “A slam dunk funded grant.”
But it’s 2025, and President Donald Trump’s administration has made sweeping changes at the NIH, the world’s largest public funder of medical research. Those include slashing grants and eliminating projects that focus on the health of racial minorities, women and LGBTQ+ people. Pediatric cancer research also took a hit.
And unless Congress intervenes, more losses are on the horizon. In his 2026 budget, Trump proposed cutting NIH funding by about 40%.
Even in this uncertain landscape, Hains and Starr are still trying to make their research a reality. But they’re dealing with a lesser-known complication: multi-year funding.
The NIH recently changed how it distributes grant funding. Instead of giving money over several years, all of it is awarded at once — but to fewer projects.
“It’s going to create this surplus of really outstanding science that’s all competing for a smaller pot of money,” Starr said. “People will see this and they will choose not to be researchers.”
As they prepare to compete for grants again, both researchers are thinking about the patients who need help.
More than one in seven American adults have chronic kidney disease, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And in Indiana, about 14,500 residents have reached the end stage of kidney failure, which requires regular dialysis or transplants to survive.
But before someone gets to that point, Hains said there could be intervention in childhood. He’s devoted nearly two decades of his career to finding solutions.
“We’re still treating this with the same tests and labs and radiology for over 30 years,” Hains said. “Our research was going to change a lot of kids’ lives.”
His voice dropped over the phone.
“And now, everyone will keep using the same medicine from 1991,” he said. “And no one will know it could have been better.”
‘The government creates uncertainty’
Kidney disease isn’t the only research topic on the line.
Get the backstory
When some NIH cuts were announced in February, Mirror Indy spoke to an IU professor worried about keeping his lab open to study Alzheimer’s disease.
Timothy Richardson is working to develop therapies for the degenerative disease, which affects more than 120,000 Hoosiers and their families. The project received millions from the NIH, but those grant dollars are still at risk, he said.
“Anytime the government creates uncertainty, it just causes a lot of problems,” Richardson said in a follow-up interview.
His team’s research is part of what makes Indianapolis a major science hub.
IU School of Medicine, headquartered downtown, is the largest medical school in the country. The institution received a record $243 million from NIH grants in 2023, bringing in support to research things like diabetes, substance use disorders and dementia.
The rest of the city — and the state as a whole — could feel the economic impacts.
Every $1 in NIH funded research generates about $2.50 in new economic activity, according to an analysis from United for Medical Research, a nonprofit coalition of research institutions. And since Trump’s slashes took effect, Indiana has lost about $29 million and 127 jobs, with big hits to research in Marion and Lake counties.
Those numbers come from ScienceImpacts.org, a data project mapping the impacts of NIH cuts across the country.
“This is not research that’s only happening at places like Harvard,” said Joshua Weitz, a professor from the University of Maryland who helped create the map. “Indiana universities are major players, and it’s going to impact the community.”
$152 million projected loss in Indianapolis
The Science Impacts tool also shares projected future losses: If Trump’s 2026 NIH budget goes through, Indianapolis is expected to lose $152 million and more than 600 jobs.
“We’re particularly vulnerable,” said Hains, the kidney disease researcher. “Some places have gigantic endowments to weather the storm, but we don’t have the same thing in Indiana.”
It’s up to Congress to approve the NIH’s budget — and some Republicans have pushed back on the cuts. But, as a government shutdown looms, they’re also fighting with Democrats over other priorities in the spending bill.
Right now, it’s unclear what future NIH funding will look like for researchers across the country, including those in Indianapolis.
“If it stays the way it is, research is doomed,” Hains said. “I’m left wondering if there are easier ways for me to make a difference in this world. But it won’t be on the same scale.”
Mirror Indy, a nonprofit newsroom, is funded through grants and donations from individuals, foundations and organizations.
Mirror Indy reporter Mary Claire Molloy covers health. Reach her at 317-721-7648 or email maryclaire.molloy@mirrorindy.org. Follow her on X @mcmolloy7.
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