Published on: May 16, 2025
Misra and Jaime Slaughter-Acey, PhD—a former postdoctoral fellow at Michigan State University and now an associate professor of epidemiology at the University of North Carolina—had applied for a highly competitive federal research grant. They were thrilled when the National Institutes of Health (NIH) awarded them the prestigious $3 million RO1 grant through the National Institute on Aging. With funding secured, they began enrolling participants in Detroit and collecting data.
But in March, midway through the study, they were blindsided by an email from the NIH.
This award no longer effectuates agency priorities, the message read. Research programs based primarily on artificial and non-scientific categories, including amorphous equity objectives, are antithetical to scientific inquiry, do not expand knowledge of living systems, offer low returns on investment, and ultimately fail to enhance health, extend life, or reduce disease.
The message left Misra not only disappointed but deeply concerned—for the women and babies who stood to benefit from the research.
She found the decision especially baffling because the project had received glowing reviews from independent scientists selected by the NIH to evaluate the proposal.
It was incredibly disheartening to have our work dismissed by someone outside the scientific process, Misra said. We designed this study for a reason. The funding cut makes it harder to continue, but more importantly, it harms the community we’re trying to serve.
The research team had already enrolled nearly 600 women from Metro Detroit. These women had invested their time by completing detailed surveys, providing access to medical records, and donating blood samples—all in the hope of improving outcomes for Black mothers and their babies.
We’re studying people’s lives—Black women’s lives,” said Mercedes Price, the study’s research coordinator, who lost her position after the grant was withdrawn.
Price, who had experienced two high-risk pregnancies herself, is a doula who supports women physically, emotionally, and informationally during and after pregnancy. She understands firsthand the barriers Black women face in healthcare.
“What medical research isn’t intended to help people?” she said. “That’s why I became a doula and a researcher—to make a difference.”
Misra noted that Black women have historically been underrepresented in research, leading to a false perception that genetics alone may explain disparities in birth outcomes.
“But we and others believed the answers went beyond genetics,” she explained. “There are many other potential contributing factors.”
The study focused on how social and environmental factors—such as where a woman grows up, her exposure to racism, food insecurity, and poverty—might influence gene expression, a field known as epigenetics. These stressors, Misra said, can accelerate biological aging, which in turn could be linked to preterm births.
Leveraging Michigan’s repository of newborn blood spots, the team obtained samples from participants and collected additional blood to examine markers of epigenetic aging. By the time the grant was cancelled, they had collected over 1,000 blood samples and invested heavily in reagents for lab testing—each costing around $250.
“The hardest part,” Misra said, “is that we’re sitting on all these samples without the resources to analyze them. We can’t fully understand how mothers’ life experiences are influencing birth outcomes.
Misra is not alone. In recent months, many medical studies across the U.S. have been abruptly halted as researchers received similar grant termination notices, amounting to billions in lost funding.
Although the study itself hasn’t been entirely stopped, its financial lifeline has. The team is now seeking alternative support from private foundations and donors.
“Our priority now is finding funding to complete the lab work,” Misra said.
But the deeper harm, she emphasized, is the lost momentum in uncovering solutions that could improve maternal and infant health.
“If we could reduce the preterm birth rate for Black women to match that of White women in Michigan, we could prevent roughly 1,600 preterm births each year,” she said.
Despite the obstacles, Misra and her team remain committed to their mission—working closely with mothers in Detroit and striving to improve the health of Black families for generations to come.
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