Georgetown University Medical Center
Georgetown University Medical Center

Messages From Research Leaders

Message Index

Date: August 6, 2026
Subject: Federal Research Funding Update

Dear GUMC Faculty and Staff,

As we begin a new fiscal year and prepare to welcome students, trainees, and colleagues back for another academic year, I want to highlight several recent research awards that underscore Georgetown’s continued leadership in advancing biomedical discovery and improving human health. At a time when the research funding landscape remains highly competitive and continues to evolve, these awards reflect the creativity, resilience, and unwavering commitment of our investigators and research teams.

First, I am pleased to also share that Georgetown University Medical Center has received an NIH grant to continue leading the Washington, DC site of the MACS/WIHS Combined Cohort Study (MWCCS), one of the nation’s largest and longest running observational studies of the health of people living with HIV. The project is led by principal investigator Seble Kassaye, MD, and co-principal investigator Dan Merenstein, MD.

The award supports Georgetown’s participation in a national research effort examining how HIV, its treatment, and other health conditions affect people as they age. With effective antiretroviral therapy, people with HIV are living longer than ever before, but they continue to face higher rates of cardiovascular disease, cancer, neurocognitive disorders, and other chronic conditions. Research conducted by the Georgetown team will help identify ways to improve long-term health for people aging with HIV while generating insights that may also benefit the broader population.

The Georgetown-led DC site has maintained a 97% participant retention rate, positioning investigators to continue collecting the high-quality longitudinal data and biological samples that make the MWCCS one of the world’s most comprehensive resources for understanding HIV and healthy aging.

Please join me in congratulating Seble, Dan, and the many faculty and staff whose dedication has made this work possible. 

This award is just one example of the outstanding research being advanced across Georgetown, as reflected in the significant recent grants listed below:

Title of project: Medical Scientist Training Program/T32 
Contact Principal investigator: Todd Waldman
Awarding agency/number: NIH/ National Institute of General Medical Sciences  (T32GM165247)

Title of project: Cancer Population Science Training Program/T32
Contact Principal Investigator: Suzanne C. O’Neill
Award agency/number: NIH/National Cancer Institute (T32CA261787)

Project Title: Aging and Alzheimer’s Research Training/T32
Contact Principal Investigator: William Rebeck 
Award agency/number: NIH/National Institute on Aging (T32AG071745)

Title of project: Chronic Nicotine Effects on vulnerable brainstem neurons/R01
Contact Principal investigator: Rebekah Evans
Awarding agency/number: NIH/National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (R01NS142876)

Title of project: Training Program in NeuroHIV/T32
Contact Principal investigator: Italo Mocchetti
Awarding agency/number: NIH/National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (T32NS121780)

Title of project: Regulation of de novo nucleotide synthesis and Glioblastoma response to radiochemotherapy/R01
Contact Principal investigator:  Huadong Pei
Awarding agency/number: NIH/National Cancer Institute (R01CA301624)

Title of project: Language and cognition after childhood stroke/R01
Contact Principal investigator: Elissa Newport
Awarding agency/number: NIH/National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (R01DC023222)

Project Title: AI-Driven Curation and Analysis of Immune-Related Adverse Events in Cancer Immunotherapy Using Secondary Immune-Oncology Databases/R21
Contact Principal Investigator: Yili Zhang
Award agency/number: NIH/National Cancer Institute (R21CA309407)

Project Title: Examining cerebrovascular mechanisms of cancer-related cognitive decline: a multimodal framework for studying cognitive aging
Contact Principal Investigator: Chloe Casagrande
Award agency/number: NIH/National Institute on Aging (F30AG101849)

Congratulations to all investigators for these and other awards received. I’d like to extend my appreciation to JORA, and to the staff and faculty who are critical to securing and conducting these research opportunities.  

Anna T. Riegel, PhD
Vice President for Research
Vice Dean for Biomedical Graduate Education 

Date: February 11, 2025
Subject: Federal Research Funding Update

Dear Members of the Georgetown University Community,

Over these last few weeks, we have witnessed unprecedented changes to the landscape of federal research funding. These changes represent a significant threat to advancements in medicine, our basic sciences relevant to biomedical innovation and our clinical trials aimed at treating cancer, neurodegenerative diseases, mental health and other diseases. Our research is central to our mission and values, and we are committed to protecting this vital work.

On Friday, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced that it has capped facilities and administrative (F&A or indirect costs) costs at 15 percent for existing and new grants. This reduced rate announced by NIH would replace Georgetown’s current negotiated and legally binding rates, which range from 26-56 percent depending on the location and nature of the work, for indirect costs.

This funding is critical and is directly applied to our research enterprise, which covers general maintenance of laboratories, facility operations, equipment costs, utilities and other government-mandated expenses such as regulatory and legal support. Georgetown does not profit from these funds. In fact, we supplement them with more than two times the amount in our own institutional funds.

Principal Investigators (PIs) do not, at this moment, need to take any action on their projects as a result of the NIH announcement. We are monitoring court activity. NIH implementation and enforcement of the announced F&A rate is, at present, suspended under a temporary restraining order issued earlier today. The Joint Office of Research Administration (JORA) will adjust F&A rates on grants, when and if that is necessary. If you have any questions, please contact the JORA at JORA@georgetown.edu.

Our work continues as we review other orders. Shortly after the first executive orders were issued to federal granting agencies, our research leaders, led by Anna Riegel, vice president for biomedical education and research, and Jeff Urbach, vice provost for research, formed a working group that continues to meet daily. We are evaluating all stop work orders, and applying for waivers from agencies that provide additional consideration for grants involving lifesaving medicines and services. We will communicate any necessary next steps directly with impacted PIs. Simultaneously, we are exploring pathways for ameliorating the impacts of the NIH’s drastic reduction in support of research infrastructure in the short term and preemptive planning for long-term changes in order to best preserve our research enterprise.

We recognize the uncertainty this has caused for so many of you who have dedicated your lives to fundamental research and bringing hope and healing to the communities we serve throughout our region and across the world. Your efforts have improved the health of so many communities. We remain steadfast in pursuit of our academic mission.

Sincerely,

Norman J. Beauchamp Jr., MD, MHS
Executive Vice President for Health Sciences
Executive Dean, School of Medicine

Soyica Diggs Colbert, PhD
Interim Provost

Date: February 6, 2025
Subject: Supporting Student Success

Dear BGE PhD students,

I am sure you are aware of the executive orders (EOs) and stop work orders that are potentially impacting some of our Georgetown research. We understand the anxiety and uncertainty that these changes are creating in the research community and in particular for our trainees. A team of Georgetown University Medical Center leaders is meeting every day to continuously analyze the dynamic and fluid situation. We are also focused on how we can best help our researchers and our graduate trainees as the situation evolves. Last week, we heard from Interim President Groves who reaffirmed our core mission of education and research. We are committed to supporting your success.

We will update you when we know more. If you have questions about your situation, please contact your Director of Graduate Studies, and they can then direct you to the best source for information.

Our community will continue to support each other. You can learn about university resources to support your mental and emotional well-being on our Every Hoya Cares website.

Best,

Anna

Anna Riegel, PhD
Vice President for Biomedical Education and Research

Date: January 31, 2025
Subject: Communicating with Agencies/Stop Work Orders

Dear Colleagues,

We’re writing to share guidance for communicating with agencies/agency program officers around stop work orders.

We know many of you have been in touch with program officers and we encourage these conversations to continue, especially if you’re receiving advice and guidance. As you may have observed, guidance/advice can vary from agency to agency, so we want to take special care in our responses to the stop work orders.

Responses or commitments about compliance to stop orders should flow through JORA only, please. This is a critical piece of our management. Please do not offer any response affirming the University’s compliance with respect to the stop work order or any referenced Executive Orders, even if you directly received a stop work order requiring a response. Contact Georgetown’s Joint Office of Research Administration (JORA@georgetown.edu) (JORA) to coordinate on a formal response to be provided through JORA..

As a reminder, we encourage you to continue to please contact the JORA to coordinate on any steps to be taken by the University. Additional guidance can be found here. Please bookmark the document, as it will be updated as new information becomes available. Previous messages to PIs can be found here.

Please share this information with your research teams. We will continue to communicate pertinent information as it becomes available.

Sincerely,

Anna Riegel, PhD
Vice President for Biomedical Education and Research

Jeffrey Urbach, PhD
Vice Provost for Research

Date: January 29, 2025
Subject: Executive Orders/Research

Dear Colleagues,

As we navigate changes to the landscape for federal funding, please know that we continue to meet regularly with colleagues across the university to analyze the impact of recent federal directives on our work, to determine the appropriate responses required, and to consider long- and short-term internal actions.

On Friday, we were in touch with a request to share any notices you have received from a federal grant or contract funding agency requiring any action or response by the University (including stoppage of work) in connection with a recently issued Executive Orders. Thank you for your assistance. Since that time, there have been additional agency directives broadly impacting our work, legal challenges to these directives, and a rescission of an order freezing federal grants. We are looking into the impact of this rescission on stop work orders that have already been issued.

We encourage you to continue to please contact the Georgetown Joint Office of Research Administration (JORA@georgetown.edu) to coordinate on any steps to be taken by the University. You can find additional guidance here. Please bookmark the document as it will be updated as new information becomes available.

We recognize this period may bring uncertainty and challenges to the important work you are conducting. We are deeply committed to our research and service missions and the important work that you do. Please share this information with your research teams. We will continue to communicate pertinent information as it becomes available.

Sincerely,

Anna Riegel, PhD
Vice President for Biomedical Education and Research

Jeffrey Urbach, PhD
Vice Provost for Research

Date: January 24, 2025

Dear Faculty, 

If you receive, or have received, a notice from a federal grant or contract funding agency requiring any action or response by the University (including stoppage of work) in connection with a recently issued Executive Orders, please contact JORA (JORA@georgetown.edu), providing a copy of the notice you received, and coordinate with JORA on any steps to be taken by the University. 

Sincerely,

Anna Riegel, PhD
Vice President for Biomedical Education and Research

Jeffrey Urbach, PhD
Vice Provost for Research