http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/06/wake-trumps-fetal-tissue-clampdown-scientists-strain-adjust

Renewals of two diabetes grants held by Megan Sykes (right) of Columbia University could be held up by a new federal policy scrutinizing fetal tissue research.

Megan Sykes, an immunologist at Columbia University, has spent years using human fetal tissue to develop a mouse with a humanlike immune system, which mimics how type 1 diabetes develops in humans. The tissue is donated after elective abortions, and the mice are testbeds for potential diabetes treatments. But last week, she learned that President Donald Trump, acting on a priority of advocacy groups opposed to abortion, had issued a new policy that is likely to cause lengthy delays the next time she seeks U.S. government grants for her work—and could even choke off federal funding for all studies that use fetal tissue. The policy “is incredibly disappointing,” Sykes says, because it is a “politically motivated decree” that could derail numerous disease research efforts.