Harvard’s Top Example of Federally Funded Research Is Actually Surprisingly Weak

Overly hyped cancer research — by 12 doctors in China

An anti-Israel protest featuring Harvard faculty near Harvard Medical School, Boston, January 6, 2025.

What valuable project will grind to a halt because of the federal government’s freeze on $3.2 billion worth of research funding to Harvard?

You’d think that with all that sponsored research to choose from, Harvard’s 16 outside lawyers, in combination with the university’s vast staff of in-house attorneys, public-relations and government-relations staff, research administrators, and deans would have an easy time finding a super-compelling example.

Someone high up at Harvard seems to believe, reasonably enough, that it will help Harvard get the $3.2 billion flowing if the university can make the court and the public believe that President Trump and Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert Kennedy Jr., are hurting innocent cancer victims. In the federal complaint Harvard filed Monday afternoon in U.S. District Court for Massachusetts, the word “cancer” appears 13 times, and “oncology” twice.

“Federally funded research at Harvard has led to life-altering advancements in improving cancer diagnoses,” the complaint says.

What’s the evidence?