Source: UW-Madison
"I have been honored to be part of this, it’s so big, it’s so important, and it’s very hopeful," said Sigrid Knuti, who, after losing her mother to Alzheimer's, has spent the last 20 years participating in research at UW-Madison.
Mar 11, 2025, 9:18 AM CST
MADISON, Wis. (CIVIC MEDIA) – Leaders from the UW System, researchers, and biomedical company executives are pushing to keep research funding to find cures for Alzheimer’s disease, cancer, and other illnesses.
The Trump Administration is cutting research money through the National Institutes of Health, which is the single largest source of research funding in the world. Wisconsin currently gets about $653 million in research funding from the NIH.
At a press conference, UW-Madison Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin said researchers at UW are working on life-saving cures.
A professor named Sterling Johnson is working on a study to help diagnose Alzheimer’s Disease years before people ever have symptoms, and ways to slow disease progression.
“The Alzheimer’s Center is providing a lot of the glue,” Johnson said. “It’s helping us train the next generation of scientists who will be facing the future iterations of this disease.”
Sigrid Knuti has been participating in that research at UW for 20 years. She’s on a mission to be part of a cure.
“I’m in the study because I’m a woman, and therefore I have a 50% chance higher rate of having Alzheimer’s than a man. I’m also in it because I’m a daughter of someone who had Alzheimer’s, which increases my risk,” Knuti said at the press conference. “I have had cognitive tests, MRI, PET scans, spinal taps, and even an endurance test on a treadmill … I really feel like I have been honored to be part of this, it’s so big, it’s so important, and it’s very hopeful.”
On top of that, UW System President Jay Rothman said these research cuts will harm Wisconsin’s economy. Advocates said biomedical research and tech companies come to Madison because of the sophisticated research, and highly skilled researchers, at UW.
Companies are also on board with this push to keep research funding. Exact Sciences and GE Healthcare joined 30 research institutions and healthcare systems in writing a letter to Wisconsin’s members of Congress asking them to fight for the research money.
Wisconsin is part of a lawsuit against the Trump Administration, part of an effort to prevent these cuts. Last week, a judge put the administration’s plans on hold a second time, but that’s only temporary.
A thousand or so people joined a Stand Up for Science rally at the state capitol Friday, protesting the research cuts.
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