life scientists react to Trump’s election victory

Donald Trump\’s re-election as US president has raised the prospect of major changes to US science in terms of policy, funding and research. Nature asked six life scientists what priorities they would like to see the administration focus on once Trump takes office in January next year.

Amander Clark: Support education and reproductive care

The policy promises President-elect Donald Trump has made during his campaign will greatly impact my professional life – as a professor at a public university and principal investigator of a stem-cell lab. Now that the election is over, I\’m eager to find out which of those promises will be fulfilled.

On the topic of education, I would urge Trump not to abolish the Department of Education, as he has proposed. Instead, he should consider ways to enable students to attend university without going into debt – for example, expanding funding for federal Pell grants, which are awarded to students with financial need.

At the University of California, Los Angeles, where I work, we are committed to supporting first-generation college students and underrepresented populations to give them the tools they need to succeed.

On science funding, I will urge the incoming president to raise funding for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to a level that is commensurate with the cost of doing science. After the last increase in the NIH budget in 2023, funding levels are 1.8% lower than they were 20 years ago when adjusted for inflation (see go.nature.com/3uvk5rr). Asking scientists to do more with less stifles creativity and threatens the United States’ position as a world leader in biomedical research and innovation.

And, finally, on reproductive health and science, I urge Trump to support basic research. For too long, federal policies have restricted scientists’ ability to develop technologies that could improve fertility care, and to research ways to expand contraceptive options, eliminate reproductive diseases, and promote healthy reproductive aging. As a result, individuals and their families remain burdened with unaffordable and inaccessible fertility treatments, including in vitro fertilization (IVF).

In October, Trump recognized the value and importance of IVF for millions of Americans. I hope he will prioritize policies that will expand access to fertility care and IVF and guarantee that this care is available to all.

Eric Topol: Embrace Medical AI

Healthcare in the United States is remarkably inefficient and plagued by millions of serious diagnostic errors each year. It has a shortage of physicians, wide disparities, and the worst outcomes of any rich country in terms of life expectancy and maternal and infant mortality.

Yet, we are on the verge of a major change. Soon, it will be possible to use multimodal artificial intelligence (AI) to integrate all of a person’s data into a single model – their electronic health record, laboratory tests, genome, social determinants of health, environmental exposures and more. The incoming Trump administration should provide financial support for this technology, to accelerate AI’s transformation in US healthcare.

Multimodal AI models, which integrate multiple data types, have the potential to do much. For example, it is hoped that they will enable more accurate diagnoses. These tools will use technologies such as digital twins – virtual models of a person – to optimize treatments and outcomes. They will be able to make personalized medical predictions, helping to prevent age-related diseases. These models could also reduce the need for hospital stays by enabling people to be monitored remotely.

The opportunities that lie ahead are extraordinary – improved efficiency, productivity, accuracy and outcomes and a massive reduction in healthcare costs. Still, more testing is needed in real-world medical settings.

This clinical research is necessary not only to validate AI models and meet regulatory requirements, but also to explore how multimodal AI can be used in a way that preserves an individual’s privacy and security, avoids bias, and reduces health inequalities. The government should prioritise such work.