Decades of Impact, Abruptly Ended as NIH Terminates JABSOM Research Training Programs

The recent termination of two long-standing student research training programs funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH)—Pacific Short-Term Research Experience Program to Unlock Potential (STEP-UP) and the Minority Health Research Training (MHRT) Programs are expected to have severe consequences for underrepresented students from Hawaiʻi and for the broader Pacific region.

With their abrupt cancellation, the programs leave behind critical and unique research opportunities for local students, but also decrease the momentum built over decades to train a homegrown biomedical workforce.

Pacific STEP-UP, a high school research pathway program active since 2002, has served over 445 students directly and hundreds more indirectly through laboratory education. Its director, Dr. George Hui, PhD, explained that the program's model trained underserved students often from rural or isolated communities in the US Affiliated Pacific Island jurisdictions, to conduct research relevant to their communities.

“From studying taro farming in the presence of global warming and sea level rising, to investigating pollution in the Marshall Islands, students tackled real-world, locally rooted problems,” Hui said.

NIH recently and unexpectedly terminated funding for the program.

“They said we were engaged in DEI activities that are not aligned with the current administration,” Hui said.

The cut came despite Pacific STEP-UP modifying its eligibility criteria in March 2024 to include everyone in the Pacific and not to use race, ethnicity, or sex in the application review process or funding decisions; long before the new federal administration took office in January 2025.

“We were confident we wouldn’t be affected,” Hui said. “We adjusted a year ago. And we had more applications than ever, over 500 this cycle. Now, we’re telling kids they can’t participate. There’s no time, no backup plan, and no comparable alternative.”

Over the last two decades, Pacific STEP-UP has proven successful, with students launching successful careers in STEM. Most recently, Nichelle Torcelino from Guam was accepted to Yale, Columbia, and the University of Pennsylvania. In an article published in the Pacific Daily News, Guam’s Department of Education credited her STEP-UP experience for the achievement.

“Hui and Pacific STEP-UP played a pivotal role in supporting Torcelino’s research,” the article stated. “Hui’s guidance and expertise were instrumental in the project’s successful completion.”

Meanwhile, Pacific STEP-UP has seen others from American Samoa go on to Harvard and claim advanced degrees in public health.

“We don’t just give our students lab time,” Hui said. “We help them believe they belong in science and research. Without programs like this, that path disappears for many.”

Similarly, the MHRT program, launched in 2013 by Dr. Vivek Nerurkar and currently run by Dr. Angela Sy, sent underrepresented undergraduate and graduate students to conduct mentored research in places like Thailand, India, American Samoa, Guam, Cameroon, Liberia, and many other low and middle-income country locations. 

“These students often had never traveled beyond the state. They return transformed—not just as budding scientists, but as global citizens,” said Sy.

Over 123 students participated, with 66% pursuing graduate degrees. Many are now holding doctoral degrees or practicing in the biomedical field, including medicine and academia.

Sakaria Laisene Auelua-Toomey a UH-MHRT 2015 alumni who graduated from UH Mānoa in 2016 was awarded a PhD in Psychology from Stanford University in 2024 and is now a faculty at UH Mānoa.

“We need these talented researchers to return to Hawaiʻi to continue to train our local students, Nerurkar said. The MHRT program also helped solidify international partnerships crucial to U.S. scientific diplomacy.

“ Some of these research collaborations are really long-term collaborations. They started 20 years ago, and we nurtured them,” Nerurkar said. “If you want to have international scientific diplomacy, we are the people to talk to. I can pick up the phone right now and call my collaborator in Vietnam, whom I trained in the late 90s. We’ve developed these collaborations over decades.”

Program leaders say the termination of these programs also sets Hawaiʻi back as the state aims to cultivate its own research and healthcare workforce.

“These (USAPI) are resource-limited areas,” Hui noted. “Without exposure to science, there’s no pipeline. That means they’ll continue to rely on external help indefinitely.”

Dr. Nerurkar echoed the sentiment. “We’re losing more than a program. We’re losing an essential pathway for underrepresented students in Hawaiʻi to see themselves in science, medicine, and public health.”

Dr. Sy added, “This will directly shrink the future talent pool from Hawaiʻi’s most marginalized communities. We’re not just closing doors—we’re bolting them shut.”

JABSOM officials are hoping for a legal reprieve. The termination is currently being challenged in a multistate lawsuit against the NIH's sweeping DEI rollbacks. “We’re hanging in there,” Hui said, “but we’ve exhausted every option.”

If the decision stands, the ripple effects could last generations. “We may not see the impact immediately, but in five to ten years, we’ll feel the void [in the reduced talent of our students]—in our classrooms, our clinics, and our communities,” Sy warns.