Cuts imperil ‘keys to future health’
Health Cuts imperil ‘keys to future health’ Nicole Romero removes biological samples from a freezer at the Chan School of Public Health.Photos by Veasey Conway/Harvard Staff Photographer Anna Lamb Harvard Staff Writer June 17, 2025 5 min read Chan School scrambles to protect living legacy of landmark Nurses’ Health studies We all know that smoking is a killer. Postmenopausal women are told by their doctors to maintain a healthy weight to reduce their risk of breast cancer. Trans fats have mostly disappeared from our diets. These groundbreaking interventions are rooted in the Nurses’ Health Studies, which have tracked data on lives and lifestyles — and taken biological samples — from thousands of participating nurses for decades. Now, federal research funding cuts are putting these efforts in jeopardy. The studies’ biological samples are stored in a network of high-powered freezers, which must maintain temperatures as low as 170 degrees below Celsius. The freezers are filled with liquid nitrogen and maintained by...