Impact Stories:
Research at Michigan
Research at the University of Michigan transforms lives. From medical breakthroughs to technological innovations, U-M research improves health, strengthens communities and delivers solutions to society’s biggest challenges. Federal investment helps to fuel U-M’s world-class research enterprise. Decades of support from agencies like the NIH and NSF have enabled groundbreaking discoveries that benefit people across Michigan and beyond. Continued investment is essential to sustaining this progress. An investment in university research is an investment in a better future. Whether it’s advancing healthcare, driving innovation in artificial intelligence or improving transportation and infrastructure, U-M research delivers solutions that improve lives and drive progress.
Dr. Karl Jepsen had just witnessed what would be a generation-defining tragedy.
Stuck on the island of Manhattan on Sept. 11, 2001, Dr. Jepsen’s outlook on life – and his life’s work – changed forever.
A month later, Dr. Jepsen boarded a plane to present his research at a national meeting. Between sessions, Dr. Jepsen went for a walk while grappling with the remaining trauma of that September day – the fear of getting on a plane and the new uncertainty of life as he knew it.
As a researcher, he had always looked for new answers, trying to find new solutions to unexplored problems. But his mindset had flipped. In this time of great change, instead of asking why things were different, could he instead investigate how things were the same? How could similarities be the key to finding the answers he needed?
In his area of research, Dr. Jepsen was among the few. Bone fractures can lead to chronic pain, disability and even life-threatening complications, and yet millions of people suffer from them every year. Studying the impact of bones and why some broke more easily than others was not a common, well-funded area before the early 2000s.
However, in 2000, the federal government began funding research in new and more intentional ways. These investments would total $767 billion by the year 2025, including a significant increase for Dr. Jepsen’s line of study.
Through partnerships with federal agencies like the National Institutes of Health and the Department of Defense, Dr. Jepsen has worked for decades to build up the field. His critical research efforts have helped develop and advance treatment for osteoporosis, build predictive treatment programs for early detection and strengthen the next generation of researchers to carry the work forward.
“This intentional, dedicated investment by our federal partners has allowed us to make significant advances in medical and public health solutions affecting millions of people not only here in the U.S. but across the world,” said Dr. Jepsen.
“We are just now seeing the outcomes of funded projects from 20, 30, 40 years ago. Without continued investment, the outcomes will be drastically different in the future. Our field may not exist, and these significant past investments would have gone to waste.”
And, it’s not only future projects or programs that could be impacted by federal funding changes – current projects face the same risks. Dr. Jepsen notes that altering research funding or operational costs today would leave thousands of products, devices and treatments on the table or lifesaving cures, treatments and technologies unexplored.
“When research funding is cut, the damage is not just immediate,” Jepsen said. “It sets entire fields back by decades, delaying innovations that could have reshaped medicine, technology, and public health. The cost of lost time is far greater than the cost of sustained support.”
Professor Zhen Xu performed her first histotripsy experiment nearly a quarter century ago in a University of Michigan laboratory funded by the National Institutes of Health.
The goal was to develop a method using ultrasound to remove unwanted tissue in young children and infants without surgery or incisions.
Over a decade of trial and error, Xu and her team discovered how to generate a “bubble cloud” from naturally occurring gas pockets in the targeted tissue. These bubbles rapidly expand and collapse, breaking down tissue at the cellular level. The painless outpatient procedure is guided by real-time ultrasound imaging, destroying targeted cancerous tissue with minimal damage to surrounding healthy tissue.
Remarkably, in some cases, the effect stimulates the patient’s immune system to continue attacking the cancerous tissue even after the procedure.
“I have been told by young mothers undergoing cancer treatment, ‘I’m losing my appetite and hair. I’m in pain and even my teeth are loosening. My cancer just keeps returning and I’m only suffering through this because I don’t want my kids to grow up without a mother.’” said Xu, a professor of biomedical engineering, radiology and neurosurgery.
“But with histotripsy, there is hope, allowing patients to say, ‘I can do this. I can undergo this treatment year after year.’ As a single-session painless procedure, it offers a chance to reclaim precious years of life, providing some the opportunity to watch their children grow up.”
Progress on Xu’s groundbreaking research would slow tremendously with any cuts or halts to federal research dollars. Earlier this month, a federal judge blocked a recent NIH order to cap indirect costs for new and existing federal grants at 15%.
The new rate would have replaced previously negotiated rates with universities and research institutions, including U-M’s current negotiated rate of 56%. The Trump administration can still appeal the judge’s decision.
“Losing funding halts our research, but restarting after disruptions is also challenging,” Xu said. “Clinical models take time to establish, hiring freezes halt recruitment and researchers lost to budget cuts may pursue other opportunities. This uncertainty can deter incoming students, ultimately impacting the future of the field.”
Today, more than 30 hospitals offer nationwide histotripsy treatment for liver tumors, with more than 1,000 patients treated. There are clinical trials underway for kidney and pancreas tumors. Research continues to explore its use for breast, brain, skin and thyroid cancers, as well as its potential for addressing neurological diseases like stroke and epilepsy.
HistoSonics, founded to commercialize histotripsy, anticipates treating 100,000 patients by 2030.
“Histotripsy is projected to have a multi-billion-dollar impact on the national economy,” Xu emphasized. “The United States is an economic leader in innovation, particularly biomedical. We don’t want to give that up.”
Decades ago, violent weather would sweep across communities with little warning, leaving destruction in its wake. Families had insufficient time to evacuate before a hurricane or tsunami or find shelter from a tornado. Today, thanks to advanced warning forecasting, public alerts provide those in harm’s way with the precious time needed to act, saving countless lives.
Similarly, infectious disease can sweep through a community like an invisible storm. And like modern weather forecasting, viral tracking has become essential to offer early warnings of potential outbreaks.
This is where the critical work of researchers like Adam Lauring is essential. As a professor and chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases at the University of Michigan Medical School, Lauring leads a team that serves as one of the state’s first lines of defense against viral threats.
Lauring’s team performs most of the surveillance that tracks new respiratory viruses and strains in the state. The work is crucial for presenting communities with vaccination guidelines and other preventative measures, as well as ensuring sufficient vaccine coverage.
Lauring’s team also participates in national surveillance networks that evaluate vaccine effectiveness. The team’s efforts deliver the necessary data to government entities and decision-makers, informing public policy and providing timely alerts about impending outbreaks.
When a particularly virulent influenza strain sweeps through Michigan, timely public warnings alert parents that there is influenza in the community. With this information, they can quickly obtain a flu shot, potentially preventing severe complications or hospitalization. Such preventative measures could mean the difference between a rapid recovery and prolonged illness, or even death.
But this vital work has been challenged in recent months.
“The recent wave of communication disruptions, funding freezes and uncertainty impact our ability to provide data,” Lauring explained. “The impact is analogous to stopping research on the weather. Just as reduced funding for weather research and forecasting would leave farmers, municipalities and others without critical information, the same holds true for viral surveillance.”
Funding cuts also may mean job loss for some of his team, Lauring said.
“We are at risk of losing a generation of talented individuals in biomedical and public health research,” he said.
The stability and effectiveness of these national networks depend heavily on consistent government leadership and support – critical in the ongoing effort to keep pace with viruses capable of mutating once per day, said Lauring, a professor of microbiology and immunology, internal medicine and ecology and evolutionary biology.
“Right now, we are trying to figure out how to improve influenza surveillance in poultry and dairy farms in the state of Michigan and elsewhere and are uncertain if we can continue this work due to funding uncertainty,” he said. “We are literally trying to ‘keep the lights on’ for critical surveillance infrastructure.”
Before she began her first professorship at the University of Manchester in England, Dr. Maria Castro had focused most of her work on neurodegenerative disorders, such as Parkinson’s disease.
But after meeting different colleagues and exploring other focus areas, brain cancer became a new field of interest. She was quickly immersed in the world of cancer progression and novel therapeutics.
“At the time, no one was really interested in brain cancer research. Not big pharma, not funding agencies – it was a narrow field of research,” Castro said.“But, I saw a need. I was interested in the biology of it and wanted to make a difference in people’s lives.”
With the goal of examining the biology of brain cancer, Dr. Castro opened her first lab at Manchester. Working closely with colleagues, she spent the next few years homing in on what exactly she wanted to research and where she could make the greatest impact.
One of her closest collaborators during that time was Dr. Pedro Lowenstein, a fellow neurosurgery professor who was exploring the use of viruses for therapeutic intent.
As the two worked together, they recognized significant crossover in their research questions: How do certain changes in gene activity affect cancer growth? And how do cells fix damaged DNA?
The two researchers were then recruited by UCLA and Cedars-Sinai Medical Center to open a gene therapy lab, where they would continue to explore the somewhat unknown frontier of brain cancer research. There, they worked to secure federal funding for their work, partnering with the National Institutes of Health and numerous philanthropic organizations. Much of their work – almost 20 years of it – has been funded through the NIH.
“This research was a labor of love over many years and the longevity that the funding provided was critical to scaling large projects over time,” Castro said.
Following their success at UCLA, Castro and Lowenstein were recruited by the University of Michigan to expand their research efforts and train Michigan Medicine neurosurgeons, work they have led for more than a decade.
At the center of their research is a human clinical trial for aggressive brain tumors known as high-grade gliomas. The trial, which is ongoing in U-M’s Department of Neurosurgery and is the first of its kind, seeks to assess the safety and effects of a new gene therapy for adults that combines two approaches: one that directly kills cancer cells and another that stimulates the immune system to attack the tumor.
According to the phase 1 trial results, published in 2023 by Drs. Castro and Lowenstein and more than 30 of their U-M colleagues, the therapy was well-tolerated and showed promising signs of effectiveness against the tumors.
This means gene therapy could be a potential future treatment option for patients with high-grade gliomas – a significant advancement in brain cancer research.
Without that consistent financial support from both foundation partners and the federal government over decades, these breakthroughs would have never been possible, they said.
“The longevity and large scale of our work has been made possible by our partnerships with federal agencies,” Lowenstein said.“Research like this takes time, considerable time, to measure and explore and adjust. By being able to conduct projects like the one at U-M over decades, we are able to make significant advancements that would not be possible without those dedicated partners.”
Dr. Nadejda “Nadia” Bozadjieva Kramer’s appointment with the VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System was terminated in February due to a sudden federal hiring freeze and delays in renewing contracts. As a result, her vital research aimed at improving veterans’ health was brought to a halt.
Also an assistant professor in the University of Michigan’s Department of Surgery, Dr. Kramer has dedicated her career to studying obesity and metabolic dysfunction, conditions that disproportionately affect veterans and increase their risk of diabetes, heart disease and other chronic illnesses. Her work has included preclinical research modeling human disease and tracking veterans and their health outcomes after bariatric surgery – research activities that are currently on hold.
And although she earned a VA Career Development Award that runs through 2027, Dr. Kramer’s ability to continue her research has been interrupted due to administrative delays related to her VA appointment.
“I am proud to be a VA-funded investigator, and I remain committed to addressing the obesity and metabolic dysfunction crisis affecting our Veterans,” Kramer said. “My separation from the VA has not only halted my research but also taken away a crucial period in my career development as an independent VA investigator”.
Dr. Kramer’s separation from the VA is part of a broader set of administrative challenges affecting more than 200 U-M faculty with VA appointments. These researchers are tackling studies on PTSD, substance use disorders, heart failure, Parkinson’s disease and other health concerns important to veterans. Without clear human resources guidance to support appointment renewals, groundbreaking, life-saving research directly impacting veterans is now in jeopardy.
The VA and National Institutes of Health play a crucial role in funding research that benefits veterans and the broader public. While federal hiring freezes and potential cuts to federal funding remain a concern for many, this specific situation is not about a lack of funding – it’s about administrative barriers preventing researchers from doing their jobs.
Without immediate action to reinstate researchers like Kramer and streamline VA appointment processes, critical studies on Veterans’ health will remain stalled, delaying treatments and potential cures.
“These challenges don’t just affect researchers – they affect veterans who rely on medical breakthroughs to improve their health and quality of life,” said Kramer.