WASHINGTON — Days after retiring from the National Institutes of Health, the agency’s former director warned that two signature programs — an initiative to decipher how the brain works, and another to build a massive and diverse genomics database — are threatened by Trump administration actions. 

“Both of these groundbreaking projects are now at severe risk because of budget and workforce cuts,” Francis Collins said of the BRAIN and All of Us projects during a speech in front of the Lincoln Memorial — during one of dozens of Stand Up for Science rallies held around the U.S. on Friday.

The BRAIN initiative, launched during the Obama administration, is developing technologies to map how the individual neurons and circuits within the brain interact, while All of Us, which Collins was instrumental in launching, seeks to gather genomic and other health information from more than 1 million Americans, more than half of them from communities underrepresented in biomedical research, to better tailor medical care.

The past two months have been somber for many researchers — with interruptions to the scientific grant process, cuts to the federal science workforce, and reductions in funding for researchers. 

But, for one afternoon, scientists took to the streets across the country, to find community in commiserating about the the first month of the Trump administration while laughing at an array of pun-filled signs with messages like “Cancer thanks Trump for the NIH Budget Cuts,” “Bad Doge,” and “Time to react” with a picture of a laboratory flask. 

Events took place in 32 cities across the country, with a smattering of affiliated rallies in other towns and university campuses across the globe. The event’s message of “Standing Up for Science — because science is for everyone” was taken in stride. Many of the speakers and signs held by attendees lauded diversity among scientists. 

The headlining event was in Washington, where roughly 2,000 people gathered and heard Collins make his first public appearance since retiring. 

Collins called out the Silicon Valley “move fast and break things” mantra, which has been championed by Elon Musk and his U.S. DOGE Service as they cut funding and staff across the federal government. 

“A better mantra would be ‘First Do No Harm’ when the decisions will potentially disrupt an institution with a stunningly positive track record and affect the future health of the nation,” Collins said.

While there is room for efficiency improvements in government, interventions should be based on scientific opportunity and public need, not politics, he added. 

Collins also emphasized NIH’s role in bankrolling the basic science that fuels clinical research, and called out pharmaceutical companies’ silence on the Trump administration’s wave of funding cuts. 

“A recent study showed that more than 99% of new drug approvals depended in some way on NIH-sponsored fundamental research. Industry therefore also has much to lose if the federal investment is damaged,” he said. “By the way, it would be good to hear more about that from pharmaceutical company leaders, just saying.” 

In Boston, several hundred people protested on the Boston Common, many wearing lab coats and university-affiliated paraphernalia and waving signs. Many of the speakers celebrated the fruits of scientific labor, from vaccines and medications like Ozempic, to artificial intelligence and cellphones, while ridiculing prominent figures from the current administration. 

“Government investment in the NIH has led to a revolution in science. We’ve got to live through that revolution. It doesn’t happen often. So the idea that it’s being curtailed or shut down, it’s just f—ing stupid,” said Gary Ruvkun, a speaker at the Boston protest who was awarded the 2024 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine.

Scientists at various stages of their careers lamented the effects of the Trump administration on their work. Several undergraduates and grad students took to the stage, frustrated with the uncertainty of how feasible a career in the sciences would be. 

“It’s stressful. I’m graduating this year, and right now, the job market in any aspect is pretty difficult. It’s just disheartening that we’re facing this and that everyone in the field has to take that step back, pretty much everyone has gone into a hiring freeze,” said Brianna Close, a virology Ph.D. student at Boston University.

Others mentioned pauses in funding resulting from the halting of NIH study sections, which review research grants. “My own grant proposal, which was scheduled for review last week, was not reviewed, and it’s not clear how long my lab can go on,” said Nancy Kanwisher, a neuroscientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, drawing collective booing from the crowd. 

In a survey of 342 participants in the Washington protest collected by a team led by Dana Fisher, a sociologist at American University who studies activism, 81% cited funding freezes and reductions in the federal workforce as their primary reason for attending. About one in five participants were attending their first protest, according to Fisher.

One university professor, who preferred to remain anonymous, drove eight hours from South Carolina to attend the D.C. rally. She said in an interview that she is worried about the future of funding for her students and postdoctoral researchers.  

“I teach a class, and I feel like I’m just rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic, because, like what’s the point of all this? They’re trying to kill science, and these students are future doctors and scientists,” she said. 

Others stressed the importance of science and medicine in their own lives. Francis McMahon, himself an NIH researcher, held up a sign that read “NIH research SAVED my life.” 

“I had a stroke last year, and because of treatment that was developed by NIH and that was available in my community hospital, I’m here walking and talking today,” he said.