J. Emory Parker

1 week ago | statnews.com | Chris Serres |J. Emory Parker

Becks Padrusch‘s fondest memories growing up were of trips to Boston’s Museum of Science, where the Arlington native got to touch animal organs and watch with fascination as chickens hatched in incubators. As a toddler, Padrusch, who uses they/them pronouns, insisted on bedtime stories about the solar system and how the planets formed. By age 5, Padrusch knew they wanted to be a scientist.

1 week ago | bostonglobe.com | Chris Serres |J. Emory Parker

Now, amid massive cuts to scientific research, Padrusch feels their dreams slipping away. On May 2, their 26th birthday, a lab supervisor gently pulled Padrusch aside and suggested they look for other jobs because of the precarious path ahead for scientific research. The Mount Holyoke engineering grad is seriously considering a dramatic career switch — a welder or electrician, anything with more security.

2 weeks ago | statnews.com | Isabella Cueto |J. Emory Parker

WASHINGTON — Robert F. Kennedy Jr. faces a White House deadline this week. His Make America Healthy Again commission must deliver a diagnosis of the nation’s epidemic of chronic disease. By summer’s end, it will need to offer solutions. In between comes the battle over priorities. Should the commission go all-in on obesity? Focusing on the fastest-rising conditions would be a sensible approach, but so would working on the sickest parts of the country, or the shared risk factors for many diseases.

1 month ago | statnews.com | Megan Molteni |J. Emory Parker |Jonathan Wosen

The National Institutes of Health has scaled back its awards of new grants by at least $2.3 billion since the beginning of the year, with the biggest shortfalls hitting the study of infectious diseases, heart and lung ailments, and basic research into fundamental biological systems, a new STAT analysis has found.

2 months ago | statnews.com | Lizzy Lawrence |J. Emory Parker

WASHINGTON — The Food and Drug Administration always looks a little different after an administration change. Political appointees are swapped out, maybe some offices are restructured. But the FDA under the new Trump administration is already starting to look dramatically different. It’s hard to keep track of how many people have left, with departures stemming from early retirements, layoffs, buyout offers, or even forced resignations.