Pioneering nutrition and chronic disease risk research may soon be lost
There are just weeks left to save the more than 1.5 million frozen biological samples that have powered some of the biggest and longest running studies of chronic disease risk factors in history.
Researchers from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and their colleagues have collected samples including DNA, blood, urine, stool, and breast cancer tumor tissue from participants in the Nurses’ Health Studies and Health Professionals Follow-Up Studies for nearly 50 years. Used in conjunction with the detailed questionnaires participants regularly fill out, the samples have led to major scientific advances, including identifying the benefits of the Mediterranean Diet and the dangers of trans fats.
But the long-term studies were terminated in recent cuts to Harvard research by the Trump administration. If no additional funding is secured, the researchers will only be able to supply the nitrogen needed to run the dozens of giant freezers holding the samples for a few more weeks.
The longevity of these studies—which would take decades to recreate if the samples are lost—offer a rare opportunity to study how health behaviors over time influence healthy aging, Walter Willett, professor of epidemiology and nutrition, said in a May 23 CNN interview. He noted that some early study participants are reaching age 100.
These cuts to nutrition research at Harvard come at a time when the administration’s MAHA [Make America Healthy Again] report on children’s health decries how little the National Institutes of Health spends on nutrition research. Willett said, “If someone really believes that we want to make America healthy, this is something that should continue.”
Watch the CNN interview: MAHA calls for more funding, but WH axed crucial nutrition studies
