Women, minorities fired in purge of NIH science review boards [View all]

Source: Washington Post

Thirty-eight of 43 people cut last month from the boards that review the science that happens in laboratories at the National Institutes of Health are female, Black or Hispanic, according to an analysis by the chairs of a dozen of the boards.

The scientists, with expertise in fields that include mental health, cancer and infectious disease typically serve five-year terms and were not given a reason for their dismissal. About a fifth of the roughly 200 board members — who provide an independent, expert layer of review for the vast research enterprise within the NIH — were fired. These experts rate the quality of the science on the nation’s largest biomedical research campus, where 1,200 taxpayer-funded investigators lead laboratories focused on Parkinson’s disease, heart disease, cancer immunotherapy and other diseases and treatments.

Six percent of White males who serve on boards were fired, compared with half of Black and Hispanic females and a quarter of all females, according to the analysis. Of 36 Black and Hispanic board members, close to 40 percent were fired, compared to 16 percent of White board members. The chairs’ analysis calculated the likelihood that this would have happened by chance as 1 in 300.

“We rate them [NIH scientists] on what they’ve done — is it good science, are you publishing, are you doing something relevant to the NIH mission?” said JoAnne L. Flynn, an infectious-diseases expert whose work focuses on tuberculosis. She was dismissed from the board that reviews research at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. “Every scientist in government and academia is reviewed, and people should take comfort in that. People who are unbiased are reviewing the science.”

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Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/2025/04/16/women-and-minorities-fired-nih-board-science/