As Trump Shreds Science Budgets and Agencies, a Baby Saved with CRISPR Shows Their Value
One of a thousand examples of course...
There’s much to marvel at related to KJ Muldoon, the infant with a rare life-threatening genetic disorder who was successfully treated with a tailored application of the latest iteration of CRISPR genetic technology.
Reams have been written, but I want to highlight one thing: analysts across the spectrum, from free market and libertarian figures and institutions to progressives, agree this breakthrough shows the value of sustained government funding for frontier science and its applications to humanity’s grand challenges.
While the intervention for this one baby was remarkable for its speed, and while the technique could quickly spread to other rare genetic ailments, the achievement builds on decades of grueling science, and that science only occurred because of decades of American taxpayer support.
That means the wonderful outcome for this baby, and prospect of wider health breakthroughs, also implicitly reveal the profound danger from President Trump’s continuing attacks on science budgets and agency capacities (abetted, so far, by his supplicants in Congress).
Read this
post from for a heap of the science used to treat KJ but also a core point about sustained federal research: The First Human to Undergo In Vivo CRISPR 2.0 Personalized Genome Editing. The relevant passage:There are many specific aspects of the case that deserve attention [including the] fact that this work culminated from many years of NIH supported research, including the current report, at a time when we’re seeing profound and indiscriminate cutting of such funds….
Related to that is the use of the mRNA-nanoparticle package for delivery of the intervention that is also being subject to cuts in funding at NIH without basis, no less potential lack of support by FDA, tied into misguided concerns about the Covid shots that saved the lives of over 30 million people.
A conservative case for federal research
Here’s where it gets more interesting. Don’t miss this recent post by James Pethokoukis, the author of The Conservative Futurist: How to Create the Sci-Fi World We Were Promised and a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, known for its focus on private enterprise and limited government: Washington Should Fund More Potential Science Miracles. Here’s the key idea:
This powerful example of the benefits of federally-funded science research is something Washington policymakers should keep in mind given the current Republican inclination to cut such investment. (And here are some more examples.)
They might also want to keep in mind the new NBER working paper, “The Social Returns to Public R&D,” in which economists Andrew J. Fieldhouse and Karel Mertens find federal R&D investment to be a powerful driver of economic growth and prosperity. Such spending has remarkably high social returns, ranging from 140 percent to 210 percent for nondefense public R&D. That return significantly outpaces private R&D returns, as federal funding also creates widespread innovation spillovers across industries and sectors.
From the paper: “If the R&D increases authorized under the CHIPS and Science Act were fully appropriated, our modeling indicates a boost in U.S. productivity within a few years, reaching gains of 0.2–0.4% after seven years or more.”
Unfortunately, federal R&D spending has declined from Cold War-era highs of 1.8 percent of GDP to just 0.75 percent today. And recent efforts suggest Washington might move further in the wrong direction. (In my 2023 book, The Conservative Futurist: How to Create the Sci-Fi World We Were Promised, I suggest heading back to those Cold War/Space Age funding levels, along with some key spending reforms.)
The points made by Pethokoukis and Ridley resonate powerfully with me because I’ve been on this case for 20 years, mostly focused on the keystone role in pursuit of clean energy (and agriculture) of sustained government funding for basic research and demonstration projects.
Please run this post by any friends or colleagues who’ve defended Trump or been silent on his science assault. And if you’re represented by Republican lawmakers, send it to them as well.
More on science and Trump:
Nearly 2,000 Scientists, and One Republican Senator, Warn of Grave Dangers in Cutting U.S. Science Support
There’ve been heaps of warnings since the start of the final term of President Trump (“second term” implies too much flex on what might follow) about the short- and long-term damage to American welfare and security from the Doge-led demolition of funding for research and budgets of relevant agencies and pro…
More on KJ Muldoon and CRISPR:
Also read
’s post,It reinforces my view that biotechnology, applied to medicine, represents the greatest opportunity for innovation, and the greatest hope for rational optimism in the current generation. More so, perhaps, even than artificial intelligence (AI).
And here’s one of the UC Berkeley scientists who helped save this child: