Probing how breast cancer interacts with nervous system
Breast cancer cells. Credit: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
This guest essay reflects the views of MIa Lin Amata, a graduate student at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. It is part of a series of essays from current researchers at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory who are deeply worried that that cuts to federal funding for medical research will slow progress on finding cures for diseases and discourage young scientists from pursuing their careers in science.
I am a Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory doctoral student studying the interactions between breast cancer and the nervous system. I first joined the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory community in 2022 as part of the Undergraduate Research Program. URP provided me a network and exposure that inspired me to pursue a PhD in biology.
I am now studying how breast cancer spreads to the lungs, a sign of advancing disease, and how it interacts with the local nervous system. With breast cancer affecting 1 in 8 women, and my mother being a survivor, I feel this research has great urgency. Throughout diagnosis and treatment, my mother endured chronic stress and sleep difficulties — both of which are regulated by the nervous system. This led to my interest in cancer-nervous system interactions, especially in later stages of the disease, and I hope my research will show a potential route for new therapeutic targets.
Although I am funded by a private endowment, much of Cold Spring Harbor’s research and scientific infrastructure — for example, its equipment, staff, and utilities — is federally funded. With federal research funding now at risk, we are moving through our work with caution and anxiety, which has taken a significant toll on our mental health. Observing nationwide decreases in graduate school classes, losses in funding for cancer research, and the effect on the National Institutes of Health workforce feels dystopic — I often feel paralyzed in my work because I question whether the government will find my research worthwhile. My communities within and beyond science are being impacted by the current administration’s policies and I’m increasingly focused on ways I can make a difference.
I was drawn to Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory because of the ease of scientific collaboration and the educational programs it provided — programs now threatened nationwide due to the current federal mandates. It’s both disheartening and alarming how this has already impacted institutions and students. I personally fear for the future of education because the scaffolding allowing minoritized groups to enter fields in STEM is being dismantled. When we broaden access to research through inclusive educational infrastructure, we are arming ourselves with the diverse perspectives that generate innovative questions and more compassionate and multifaceted solutions.
Targeting scientific research is shortsighted when it is the public that we are serving. The work scientists do — like finding new pathways for treating cancer — is critical for our biomedical, agricultural, and environmental futures.
All of it deserves adequate funding.
Mia Lin Amato is a graduate student at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.
This guest essay reflects the views of MIa Lin Amata, a graduate student at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.
