Director's Message | Summer 2025

Every scientific breakthrough begins with a question. At the UCLA Broad Stem Cell Research Center, our mission is to foster those questions, nurture the resulting discoveries, and translate those discoveries into therapies that can improve human lives. From understanding how stem cells differentiate into specific tissues to developing new treatments for the most challenging diseases, our work depends on one essential foundation: public investment in research.

That foundation is now under strain. In recent months, proposed and actual cuts to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) budget have raised serious concerns across the scientific community. These cuts are not minor — they jeopardize the very research infrastructure that allows institutions like ours to explore, innovate, and ultimately heal.

When people hear “NIH funding,” they may imagine an abstract budget line or a distant bureaucracy. In reality, that funding supports real people working on real problems in communities across the country. It supports early-career scientists launching their first labs. It funds graduate students training to become the next generation of innovators. It enables clinical trials that bring new hope to patients with few other options. And it powers discoveries that, decades from now, will still be shaping the future of medicine.

This model of public funding for scientific research is one of the great American innovations. After World War II, it was championed by Vannevar Bush, chairman of the National Defense Research Committee, who envisioned a partnership between science and society that would endure for generations. In 1945, he wrote: “Scientific progress on a broad front results from the free play of free intellects… Freedom of inquiry must be preserved under any plan for government support of science.”

Those words remain as vital now as they were then. Scientific inquiry flourishes when researchers are free to pursue bold ideas, not just those with immediate commercial applications, but those that deepen our understanding of life, health, and disease. That freedom, however, depends on sustained public investment and trust.

Here at UCLA, we see every day what that investment makes possible. NIH grants support our work on stem cell-based therapies to restore vision to those with degenerative eye diseases, repair damaged heart tissue, and develop potential cures for conditions like ALS and sickle cell disease. They enable us to share data, mentor students, and collaborate across disciplines. Without that support, the progress we’ve made and the future we envision become far less certain.

We know that resources are finite and that policy decisions are complex. But we also know this: a society that turns away from science turns away from its own potential. Biomedical research isn’t just a budget line; it’s a commitment to a healthier, more hopeful future for all. The research questions that drive our work aren’t abstract puzzles; they’re urgent medical challenges waiting for answers.

At the UCLA Broad Stem Cell Research Center, we’re committed to pursuing those questions with transparency, rigor, and a deep sense of purpose. Thank you for believing in our work — and for recognizing the essential role that public investment plays in the progress we all hope to see.

Thomas Rando, MD, PhD
Director, UCLA Broad Stem Cell Research Center
Professor of Neurology and Molecular, Cell and Developmental Biology