Governor concerned federal funding cuts will send Massachusetts scientists abroad for work

    CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts (WBZ) -- Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey is warning that federal funding cuts to the National Institutes of Health could have far reaching impacts on scientific research and the state's economy.

"What we've seen from the Trump administration are devastating cuts to medical research and to lifesaving cures," said the governor.

Healey is concerned top talent could be lured abroad for higher paying jobs.

"What has happened is you have other governments from China, from the Middle East, from around the world," she explained. "And basically saying, 'Hey, the federal government's going to cut off your funding and going to take away research?

Come to our country. We'll give you a lab. We'll set you up. We'll give you staff.'"

Enticing local scientists in a challenging political landscape.

"Yes, I go to work every day and I think, OK, this is the experiment that I need to do. This is the disease I'm studying today. Whatever it is. But in the back of my head is, if this disappears tomorrow, a girl's got to pay the bills, you know," Dr. Jaime Cheah said. Cheah is a scientist at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard in Cambridge and heads the Center for the Development of Therapeutics. "The NIH cuts, all the policy changes have really affected how we do business on a day-to-day basis. A lot of times our attention is diverted from the things we should be doing in lab to what does tomorrow look like?"

That uncertainty makes opportunities abroad very appealing, Cheah said.

"Personally, yeah, looking for opportunities outside of the United States is absolutely on the top of my mind."

Searching for that back-up plan – making retaining top talent here much more difficult.

"That's not putting America first," Healey said from the Statehouse.