A $6 million, multiyear federal grant supporting the research and development of an implantable pediatric artificial heart at Ithaca, N.Y.-based Cornell University was canceled in April when the Trump administration pulled about $10 billion in funding to elite colleges and universities, according to an Oct. 9 report from WYPR.
The FDA added pediatric ventricular devices to the medical device shortages list in July.
The project’s leader, biomedical engineer James Antaki, PhD, received a stop-work order from a grant officer at the Department of Defense, which said the cancellation was “at the direction of the administration,” the report said.
Since the funding cancellation, Dr. Antaki’s lab has been shut down, graduate students have left and a “key” project technician was laid off.
“We feel like collateral damage,” Dr. Antaki told WYPR. “There is no reason to punish us. We’re trying to do good in the world.”
Read the full WYPR report here.
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