Earlier this month, the National Institutes of Health announced that it would limit the amount of funding for indirect costs related to research to 15 percent.

Indirect costs cover items such as equipment, operations, maintenance and personnel.

NIH, under the Trump Administration, said in its announcement that is is “obligated to carefully steward grant awards to ensure taxpayer dollars are used in ways that benefit the American people and improve their quality of life. Indirect costs are, by their very nature, ‘not readily assignable to the cost objectives specifically benefited’ and are therefore difficult for NIH to oversee.”

McLaughlin Institute researcher awarded NIH grant for Alzheimer’s study [2024]

Many research institutions nationwide said the cut could have a stifling impact on scientific and medical research.

In Great Falls, that cut will impact the McLaughlin Research Institute, which was renamed the Weissman Hood Institute last fall and partners with Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine.

Last year, Dr. Tiffany Hensley-McBain was awarded a NIH grant award of about $3.1 million over five years for her work to understand Alzheimer’s disease and translate findings to clinical applications that may help those with Alzheimer’s disease across Montana and beyond.

Her project is titled “Investigating neutrophilic inflammation as an APOE genotype-specific mediator of neuroinflammation and cognitive decline in aging.”

McLaughlin Research Institute in Great Falls receives $13.8 million federal grant [2024]

McLaughlin received two NIH grants totalling $3,628,886, according the NIH award database.

Hensley-McBain received an NIH grant for similar research in 2022.

Also in 2024, McLaughlin received a $13.8 million NIH grant to launch the Center for Integrated Biomedical and Rural Health Research and expand their research enterprise over the next five years.

Dr. Renee Reijo Pera, director, is the principal investigator under the grant.

The new research center is part of the NIH Centers of Biomedical Research Excellence nationwide network and is the first center of excellence grant to be awarded outside the state’s major universities in Bozeman and Missoula, according to a McLaughlin release.

The centers are funded through three competitive phases of five years each.

MRI receives $5 million donation from former intern [2021]

A few days after the NIH announcement to cut funding to 15 percent for indirect costs, Hensley-McBain and Reijo Pera sent a letter to NIH officials and their elected officials requesting a waiver of that 15 percent cap.

Hensley-McBain told The Electric that the letter outlines how the 15 percent cap might impact the institute and they are waiting to see what changes are implemented at NIH.

“As we wait, we are moving forward with our mission and research and look forward to continuing to serve Montanans,” she said.

Blanket cuts of their indirect costs would take the institute from 80 percent, or about $2.4 million, to 15 percent, or about $425,000.

“We ask for a waiver of the reduction to 15 percent based on our status as a small research institute with a critical mission and a location in one of the IDeA states, 26 states which collectively receive less than 3 percent of the total NIH budget. Alternatively, we request that our costs could be directly billed, to allow us to maintain our mission by allowing the reimbursement of indirect costs. We also concur with the statement, as provided in our Notice of Awards for our grants that ‘it is accordingly vital to ensure that as many funds as possible go towards direct scientific research costs’ and these include for us electricity, heating, facilities repair and maintenance, office management and equipment and supplies that directly support our biomedical research. We request consideration either of an indirect waiver, a modified ceiling or reimbursement of expenses such as those listed,” Hensley-McBain and Reijo Pera wrote.

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In their letter, they wrote that they are an NIH-funded biomedical research institute of about 45 employees that “punch above our weight,” using federal funds effectively and providing technology jobs in the community.

The institute is building one of the first “biomedical innovation corridors” in the rural U.S. with “no preferential hiring practices that favor any group and often offer the only option to those who seek to make a living in a biomedical career in central Montana,” according to the letter.

The institute has eight investigators researching diseases that “disproportionately are of concern to our citizens in rural agricultural communities as they age, including: Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, age-related macular degeneration, chronic wasting disease, diabetes and mental health.

Hensley-McBain and Reijo Pera wrote that the institute has the only Montana patient registry for those seeking to participate in clinical research with more than 500 Montanas participating.

The institute is the only agency in the region to train the next generation of biomedical researchers through their internship program and affiliation with Touro, they wrote.