He was issued the halt-work directive. Then the rush started.

Just a few hours after Harvard dismissed the Trump administration’s requests, the halt-work directive landed in Don Ingber’s inbox.

Ingber, the founding director of the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, noted that the April 14 order was aimed at two of his organ-on-a-chip initiatives, which together held over $19 million in multi-year agreements with a division of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Also a professor at Harvard Medical School and the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Ingber was among numerous University researchers receiving such notifications after the government suspended around $2.2 billion in research funding intended for the University.

The action followed Harvard’s refusal to comply with requests that included modifications in governance, recruitment, and admissions, as well as evaluations of student, faculty, and staff perspectives. A week later, Harvard initiated legal proceedings, deeming the demands an unlawful and unconstitutional overreach and seeking the restoration of funding.

Upon receiving the directive, work was ceased, yet the scrambling — and uncertainty — commenced for everyone directly involved in the initiatives, including researchers, students, and postdoctoral fellows, he explained.

With Harvard and the federal administration in conflict, legal actions underway, and observing the Trump administration make significant moves in other sectors only to retract them, Ingber declared he is hesitant to make any definitive choices like layoffs.

“This is a halt-work order that might end next week, particularly with the lawsuit active,” he remarked. “Our priority is to care for the individuals first. While the initiatives must cease in terms of spending, if there are openings in other grants, we’re reallocating people to them. We’ll endeavor to identify internal funding to sustain them for at least until we ascertain what is happening.”

However, swift decisions had to be made regarding how to wind down projects. Discontinued experiments would likely result in lost progress for students and postdoctoral fellows engaged in theses or papers reliant on those projects. There has also been a rush to protect individuals, Ingber mentioned, by locating positions for them within other projects.

The research itself bears significant implications.

Ingber’s principal project employs organ-on-a-chip technology developed at the Wyss to examine radiation harm to human lung, intestine, bone marrow, and lymph nodes, creating a tool to model tissue damage lining the chip’s minute channels and discover new therapeutics that could alleviate such harmful effects.

Ingber emphasized that this research is particularly vital considering the administration’s proposals to escalate nuclear power production to support the energy-intensive artificial intelligence sector.

Even without AI, the initiative would prove beneficial in modeling radiation harm to human organs in the event of a nuclear reactor mishap, for cancer patients seeking radiation treatment, and — in a dire scenario — a nuclear detonation.

“What has powered the economy over the last half-century is America’s innovation machinery that fosters sciences fueling technology evolution, driven by the partnership between government and academia.” 

The secondary project utilizes organ-on-a-chip technology to simulate the impacts of microgravity and radiation exposure on astronauts during space travel. Scheduled to be part of the Artemis II mission to the moon, the specialized chips incorporate the astronauts’ own cells to study the effects of space travel on bone marrow — the origin of blood cells.

“Once you breach the Earth’s atmosphere, solar flares emit incredibly high-energy radiation that can be deadly,” Ingber explained. “Astronauts will certainly face exposure during lengthy flights to Mars, and you can’t simply encase them in a lead capsule, as some might suggest, due to weight constraints critical for leaving the atmosphere. Unless we resolve this issue, we won’t reach Mars with human presence. Robots, perhaps, but not people.”

The ambiguity is necessitating tough choices. Ingber stated he has already been approached by one scientist on his team who emigrated to the U.S. and has decided to leave the Wyss for opportunities in Europe. Ingber agreed to provide her with a recommendation and assist her in locating a fitting position.

“She’s only been here for six to eight months, but she’s frightened. They all are frightened,” Ingber shared. “It’s challenging to know what to convey to them, aside from assuring them we will safeguard them to the best of our abilities.”

This situation has also influenced the decisions of researchers considering relocation to Boston. A European postdoctoral scientist who had accepted a position at the Wyss recently rescinded his acceptance, citing family and friends’ warnings that it is unsafe for foreigners in the U.S.

“We have been an attraction for the brightest minds globally. It’s a self-reinforcing cycle. They genuinely draw others in, create new industries, and transition into tax-paying Americans,” Ingber stated. “Currently, individuals from America are hesitant to pursue science due to its instability, and we already have candidates in Europe declining job offers.”

Ingber is puzzled over what constructive result the administration expects to achieve. He spent 90 percent of his time during the past week managing the crisis: convening with his leadership team, researchers, and staff; consulting with University officials; and determining where funding can be allocated to meet swiftly evolving needs.

Additionally, he’s drafting op-eds concerning funding cuts at the NIH, FDA, and CDC and communicating with the press to emphasize that academic research constitutes the foundation of America’s innovative economy, impacting many aspects of our daily existence, from computers to optical fibers to iPhones.

“What has powered the economy over the last half-century is America’s innovation machinery that cultivates sciences which propel technology enhancement, grounded in the agreement between government and academia,” he noted. “This appears to be nearing its conclusion.”