A crowd of around 250 protesters gathered outside the state Capitol in Jefferson City on Friday, rallying against government cuts to scientific funding under the Trump administration.
Graduate students and researchers from universities across the state attended, including St. Louis University and Washington University. Several wore buttons that read: “Ask me about my research.”
John Tavis, a professor of molecular virology at St. Louis University, said he came to the protest because federal cuts to scientific funding through the National Institutes of Health will disrupt important research on illness and treatment, including his own.
Tavis researches treatments for hepatitis B, which kills over a million people worldwide each year.
“The grant that I have submitted, to advance this and develop new drugs to save people’s lives, I have no idea if it’s going to be reviewed, because Trump has paused the NIH peer review system,” Tavis said. “Without the peer review they cannot spend money on grants, which means we can’t do lifesaving research.”
Other researchers at the protest specialize in scientific fields including crop science and social work. All said they were concerned about federal funding cuts.
Travis Law, a graduate student at Washington University, said that his work on neurodevelopmental disorders is currently funded by an NIH grant.
“Normally I’d be in the lab working,” Law said. “But I’m out here because if we cut all funding for research, we give up not only our role as a leader of research in the world, but our pipeline towards finding all of these future cures.”
The protest was organized as part of a nationwide Stand Up for Science effort, with thousands gathering at dozens of rallies across the country, including in Washington, D.C.
“We would like to end censorship and political interference in scientific research. We would like to stabilize and expand federal funding,” said Elizabeth Neilson, a researcher and member of the Missouri organizing committee for the Stand Up for Science movement. “And we would like to uphold inclusivity and accessibility in science.”
Neilson said that she wants state lawmakers to listen to scientific experts.
“We also would like policymakers to make evidence-based decisions and to keep the flow of communication open,” Neilson said. “I am not an expert in policy, I don’t expect them to be an expert in science, but when I need to know policy I know the experts to talk to, and we’d like them to do the same.”
Piper Molins, a student organizer at the University of Missouri, was one of several speakers at the event. In her speech, she emphasized that scientific research benefits everyone.
“I’m also an enjoyer of breathing clean air, drinking clean water, and not having polio,” she said, drawing cheers from the crowd. “Even though I may not be a scientist, I know enough to understand that the work that scientists do is intimately connected to the quality of life of me and the people who I love.”
The River City Journalism Fund supports St. Louis Public Radio's Statehouse internship. Evy Lewis is the 2025 reporting intern. See rcjf.org for more information about the fund, which seeks to advance journalism in St. Louis.
