Larry disclosed to us yesterday that we basically have no more money in the lab. I guess this wasn't the biggest shock to me, because we've always been short of money, but it came as a blow nonetheless. He further informed me and Emilia that we're going to have to write a(nother) fellowship application to fund our stipends. My fellowship with the Children's Tumor Foundation ends in June, and after that Larry won't be able to support us - at least not without a lot of pressure and nasty emails from the OSU research foundation. Another option for us would be to teach, at which point our program would support us, but who wants to teach when they're trying to write their dissertation??!! (Not to mention how much time it would take away from labwork.) So I thought that my CTF grant was going to be enough for me - not only a great addition to my CV, but also a great way to keep Larry afloat. As it turns out, it won't be enough. Okay, no big deal right? I've written three grants to date, so this should be a cinch. The only problem is that there is a stipulation in the eligibility requirements that all applicants/awardees have to have a GPA of at least 3.6 in their graduate career. What the HELL!!??!! Who gives a damn about GPA anymore?? Not that mine (or Emilia's for that matter) is that shabby - we're both at about 3.3-3.4 - but apparently now we won't be eligible to even apply. What makes this worse, is that it puts even more pressure on me to find something because Emilia and Zhirong can't apply for just about any grant funding because they're not US citizens. Being the only US citizen in the lab, that means that I'm pretty much required to keep looking and writing until I get something funded.
This is not what I was expecting to learn yesterday.
We are also now required to meet with Larry to discuss the scope of our projects, and sack any projects that aren't producing fast-paced data, or aren't the most field-moving. That likely means that I'll have to stop working on my TEC1 project which deals with the embryonic defect we see in our mice. While the project was really interesting, it's not producing enough data to justify continued attention - at least that's what I'm expecting Larry to say. The good news is that it'll allow me more time to focus on the tumor study, but there's a problem there too. We have to weed out the most important experiments to work on and be sure that anything we do is absolutely necessary to the project. Not that we don't normally do this, but it'll be harder to justify experiments that might give interesting/unexpected results if we can't afford to just try it out. Sometimes that's what research is all about - trying something out just to see if it works. If it doesn't, well then move on to another idea. Now we just have to think and plan a lot more about exactly what needs to happen. It's good for us to do, but an added difficulty in the equation if you're always concerned about asking to spend money that isn't there.
Let's all thank the republicans. ...Assholes.
This is all a result of NIH funding being slashed. What people don't realize is that not only is the NIH not funding as many new projects, they aren't funding their old projects to the extent that they were when the grants were initiated. This means that whatever they promised Larry four years ago is not what they're able to give him now. The government slashed NIH's budget which means they don't have enough money to even pay the people what they promised. It's not the NIH's fault per se, it's the government and the people who vote to keep scientific research on the back burner. Well, I hope those people don't ever get cancer, alzheimer's, or any other metabolic or genetic disease because as a result of their neglegence and greed we won't be able to help find a cure for them. Then again, maybe I do wish for them to get sick; it might help them change their mind.
