His lab, which studies the neural circuit basis of normal and disordered cognition, had several initiatives underway when NIH entered lockdown mode. The shutdown meant that we couldn’t advance these projects enough in time to present meaningful stories at conferences that many of us were poised to attend.” Our experiments also require complex breeding of various transgenic mice and often last 6-7 months from start to finish. “Technical details of many experiments had recently been streamlined and we were about to enter a particularly productive phase. “Our lab had to shut down experiments just as projects were beginning to crest,” he said. Dave Kupferschmidt of NINDS’s integrative neuroscience section was at a crucial moment when the shutdown was announced. More than 3 months later, on June 22, the first labs-those with specific functions that could not be performed elsewhere and designated “Group A”-began returning to physical worksites under strict safety guidelines and with significant restrictions.ĭays later, several scientists in Group A described the unprecedented period from a researcher’s perspective. 20, to reduce the risk of coronavirus transmission, NIH shut down all but mission-critical functions in all its laboratories and facilities nationwide. The covid pause has introduced a major, major setback.” Shutting Downīeginning Mar.
#Darwin project shutting down full
No one knows when we’re going to come back full speed and that really affects our ability to get our science to the top of Mount Everest. It’s been difficult for us to keep our projects advancing in the laboratory.
Now we’re just dwindling we can’t have everybody come in and we can’t have the team assembled. Then came covid, and we had to just stop everything. Usually, it’s a manuscript or a set of experiments that are going to make a major advance…Well, a lot of us were at base camp. The summit is the sort of major accomplishment we try to achieve for a scientific program. And then when you get there, the team has to coordinate to go for the summit.
“It’s just a long, long struggle, just trying to get to base camp. Charles Venditti, who heads NHGRI’s organic acid research section. “It’s like climbing Mount Everest,” said senior investigator Dr. That’s how one longtime intramural scientist describes NIH’s recent 13-week lab shutdown due to the global coronavirus pandemic. All the planning, all the prep work and your team finally finds itself poised, with the objective within reach, when suddenly the journey is halted in its tracks. Imagine laboring many months toward a rare goal.
Michael Gottesman (front), returned to campus as part of Group A. Shown BC (before covid), NCI’s Laboratory of Cell Biology, led by NIH deputy director for intramural research Dr.
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