Harvard Breast Cancer Researcher Warns Political Interference Is Halting Life-Saving Science [Video]

Joan Brugge, a renowned cancer researcher at Harvard Medical School, was leading a critical project aimed at stopping breast cancer before it starts. But when the federal government froze her research funding over campus political controversies, her groundbreaking work came to an unexpected halt.

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“The email said both of my NIH grants were terminated. Terminated,” Brugge recalled during an interview with 60 Minutes. “It was just like a gut punch.”

Brugge, director of the Ludwig Cancer Center, was studying how early-stage cells mutate into cancer.

“The ultimate goal is to find a treatment that will eliminate those cells,” she explained. “Yes, prevent the cancer.”

But last spring, over $2 billion in federal research funding to Harvard was frozen after the Trump administration targeted the university over issues tied to antisemitism, diversity initiatives, and ideological bias. Brugge’s cancer lab was one of many caught in the crossfire.

“My research has the potential to prevent their daughters, and their wives, and their cousins from developing breast cancer,” she said. “I don’t think any taxpayer would want to interfere with that.”

Brugge, who has secured federal grants for decades, was forced to shift her focus from science to survival. “I’m spending most of my time ringing doorbells to find alternate funding so we can keep the lab going,” she said.

Though a judge later ruled the funding freeze unlawful and ordered the money restored, Brugge warns the damage runs deeper.

“There’s now this existential threat that this could happen again,” she said. “Eventually, people will leave the U.S. to do research where this kind of threat doesn’t exist.”

Harvard researcher Joan Brugge says her work has the potential to prevent breast cancer, but she was notified last spring that her federal funding was terminated. “It was just like a gut punch. My knees buckled, and I had to sit down,” she says. pic.twitter.com/WrIzR5rRPI

— 60 Minutes (@60Minutes) November 10, 2025