UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA

U of M researchers are planting ‘survivor’ trees in hopes of defeating Dutch elm disease

Mary Divine / St. Paul Pioneer Press — Tue, 03 Jun 2025 14:54:37 GMT

ST. PAUL — The 36 trees planted last week at Boutwells Landing senior living community in Oak Park Heights have a big job: To help revitalize the state’s elm population.

The American elm trees, each about 2 years old and 4 to 6 feet tall, were cloned by University of Minnesota researchers to be resistant to Dutch elm disease, a fungal disease that killed millions of elm trees around the world.

In the late 1970s, there were 1.3 million American elms with diameters greater than 21 inches in Minnesota. Dutch elm disease killed 95 percent of them, leaving behind fewer than 60,000 big elms, according to U researchers.

Ryan Murphy and Ben Held, co-investigators on the U’s disease-resistant elm selection and reintroduction program, want to revive the population. On May 16, they got some help from Boutwells Landing residents David Lime, 84, and Neal Kingsley, 87, both U.S. Forest Service veterans, who participated in the three-hour planting project.

Soon after Lime moved to Boutwells Landing three years ago, he pitched the idea of starting a nursery in the southeast corner of the 100-acre property to help offset the loss of ash trees from emerald ash borer.

Boutwells Landing officials expressed interest, and Lime, who worked for 20 years in the Forest Service’s experiment station on the St. Paul campus and later taught at the U’s College of Forestry, started looking for places giving away trees and people who were researching trees “where we could invite them to plant some trees on our property,” he said.

Lime connected with Kingsley, and the two met with Rob Venette, director of the Minnesota Invasive Terrestrial Plants and Pests Center at the U of M and research biologist with the U.S. Forest Service Northern Research Station. He connected them with Murphy and Held.

“It was just one of those things where they had space, and we were looking for places, and it just was the right connection,” Murphy said.

Hardy elms survived

Dutch elm disease is caused by a fungus that can be spread by a bark beetle or through two trees that have interconnected roots. Beetles reared in infected trees emerge from the diseased wood carrying spores, which they then deposit into healthy trees by feeding on the young twigs. The fungus triggers reactions that block the tree’s vascular system, which prevents it from getting water and nutrients normally, and it becomes wilted, leading to rapid death, Murphy said.

Fortunately, Dutch elm disease didn’t kill every elm tree in the state. Some very hardy “survivor” elms were left behind.

“Oftentimes, they’re the only elm tree left in an area where everything else has died,” Murphy said.

Said Venette: “It’s just a matter of a random mutation that happens to occur in these trees. In general, the species as a whole is highly susceptible, but it’s just these very lucky individual (trees) that have natural resistance.”

Researchers are using the “survivor” elms from around the state — identified by forestry officials, arborists and private landowners — to grow Dutch elm disease-resistant trees.

Here’s how it works: Researchers visit the “survivor” elm in the wintertime and take the branch tips and then grow a tree genetically identical to that elm.

“You take that tissue from that twig, and you graft it onto a rootstock,” said Murphy, who also manages the U of M’s Urban Forestry Outreach & Research Lab, which provides education about trees to communities around the state.

The cloned trees are then planted back in the landscape either at the St. Paul campus or at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum in Chanhassen “to confirm that they really are resistant, and that they weren’t just lucky and got missed by the bark beetles,” Venette said.

Once the tree is propagated, it can take five to seven years to get to a size where it can be inoculated with the pathogen, Murphy said.

“We then drill a hole into the main stem of the tree, inject the tree with concentrated spores of the fungus which causes the disease, and wait to see its effect,” he said. “To find one resistant cultivar, it could easily take 10 years.”

If the tree survives inoculation with the fungus, researchers will then propagate more of them and plant those at different test sites around the state “because we have more evidence to suggest that they are truly resistant,” he said.

Multiple sites

The resistant elms are being planted at Boutwells Landing, Nerstrand Big Woods State Park, Elm Creek Park Reserve and in the Minnesota River Valley.

Researchers plan yearly follow-up visits to assess the tree performance; the trees are expected to grow several feet each year, Murphy said.

Fifteen more trees will be planted in a forested area at Boutwells Landing that was impacted by emerald ash borer, an invasive beetle that attacks and kills ash trees. Ash trees were planted in many urban forests in Minnesota to replace elm trees decimated by Dutch elm disease, Venette said.

“It’s all part of growing a more diversified urban forest,” he said. “We’ve nearly come full circle.”

The research project at Boutwells Landing is expected to last somewhere between five and 10 years “because we really are trying to understand how well these trees get established and what factors might be affecting their survival and growth,” Venette said.

The $226,000 research project, funded by the Minnesota Invasive Terrestrial Plants and Pests Center, started in January 2024. An earlier U of M research project on developing Dutch-elm resistant trees received $234,000 in funding from the center and was completed in 2023.

The center was formed in 2014 to coordinate the U’s research into invasive insects and land-based plants. It is funded by the state’s Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund as recommended by the Legislative-Citizen Commission on Minnesota Resources. The center, which has four employees, has an annual budget of $330,000.

Engaging people in science

Officials were thrilled when Murphy and Held proposed the project, said Heather Koop, the Invasive Terrestrial Plants and Pests Center’s associate program director.

“When we can get a piece of research to that point of implementation, that’s the gold standard for us … that’s how we really like to measure our success,” she said. “So often we see research that is done that never really gets to that next stage. Because this is all publicly funded, we feel very strongly that this research needs to be in the public realm, and people need to understand it and how to use it. Hopefully, they’ll apply it, and hopefully, we’ll see better management options available for different invasive species.”

Another plus: The project “engages people in science,” she said. “You have these folks who are super-eager to help us out, and that just makes me really happy.”

In addition to having a few retired foresters, Boutwells Landing has “a very rich community of folks who are interested in science,” Venette said. “They reached out and asked about opportunities to engage in collaborative work related to trees, and we just happen to have this project that was a nice fit.”

Researchers worked with teens from the Green Crew, the youth program of the Izaak Walton League’s Minnesota Valley chapter, to plant trees in Bloomington on Earth Day 2023, so it was fitting to work with seniors on the Boutwells Landing project, Venette said.

“It really shows the breadth of interest in this kind of work,” he said.

Lime, who walks or drives past the new trees at least once a day, said the project is giving staff and residents at Boutwells Landing a chance “to learn about the role of science in helping solve serious natural-resource problems” and how they can help bring American elm trees back to the Minnesota and Upper Midwest landscape, he said.

“The idea is that if we can re-establish them in Minnesota, maybe we can do it in other states,” Kingsley said. “Bringing them back would be great because they were beautiful.”

Although Kingsley knows he may not be around to see whether the experiment was a success, he said he is happy to have played a part.

“My grandfather built fishing schooners, and I remember as a kid growing up seeing a ship that my grandfather helped build,” he said. “It was nice. Maybe my grandkids or great-grandkids will say, ‘See that tree? Bamp helped plant that.’ That would be kind of nice.”

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Some adults may only have 1 measles vaccine dose; others may have no protection, doctors say

April Baumgarten — Wed, 21 May 2025 10:50:00 GMT

FARGO — Adults should check their vaccination records, as ones born before 1989 may have only received one dose of the measles vaccine, a doctor said.

Others may have a vaccine that doesn’t provide protection against the highly contagious virus, experts said.

Measles has reached North Dakota, largely impacting unvaccinated children. Of the 13 cases, the state has reported infections in three adults over the age of 20 years old, including one in Cass County, according to the state Department of Health and Human Services.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends two doses of the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccination: the first when children are 12 to 15 months old, then the second between the ages of 4 and 6 years old.

Some adults born before 1989 may only have one dose, said Dr. Alison Galdys, a University of Minnesota professor in the Infectious Diseases and International Medicine Division. That’s because the CDC only recommended one dose before an outbreak that year.

“I think this is a time for people to know their own vaccine status,” she said.

One dose of the MMR vaccine provides 93% protection, said Dr. Avish Nagpal, an infectious disease specialist at Sanford Health in Fargo. A second shot boosts that effectiveness to 97%, he said.

“Even with one dose, many people are very well-protected from the disease,” he said.

The current vaccine lasts for life, and doctors typically don’t recommend a second dose for adults who have one shot, Nagpal said.

That could change if infections progress in North Dakota, he said.

“That recommendation hasn’t come yet,” he said. “Depending on how many cases we get in North Dakota, we may get that recommendation for a booster for that age group before 1989.”

People born before 1957 are considered immune, since they were exposed to the disease, Nagpal said. Measles vaccines became widely available in 1963, the CDC said.

Some were less effective than others, Galdys and Nagpal said. Researchers developed a killed, or inactivated, vaccine. It introduces a killed version of measles into the body, which the immune system recognizes without causing the disease, Galdys said.

Doctors studied kill vaccine recipients and found the antibodies that fought the measles dropped, eventually making it ineffective, Galdys said.

“The kill vaccine wasn’t found to be very good,” Nagpal said.

A live vaccine was developed in 1967 and replaced the killed vaccine, Galdys said. Those who got the kill vaccine may no longer have protection from measles, Nagpal said.

Some may not know what type of vaccine they got, since records may no longer exist, he said.

“So for those people, specifically for that cohort between 1957 and 1967, we say that if you don’t know what vaccine you got, you should get the vaccine that we have right now,” he said.

Galdys agreed, noting that the live product is very effective.

Patients who don’t have records can get a blood test to determine their immunity, Nagpal and Galdys said. That can cost more than $100.

The blood test isn’t perfect, Galdys said. It shows exposure to measles, but it may not show how much protection a person has, she said.

The vaccine is typically covered by insurance, and the federal vaccines for adults and children programs can help cover most of the cost for those who are uninsured, Health and Human Services said.

“Many people opt to get the vaccine rather than adding another step and getting a blood draw,” Nagpal said.

Residents in North Dakota and Minnesota can check their vaccination records by using the Docket app, which can be found at wy.app.dockethealth.com.

North Dakota vaccination locations can be found at hhs.nd.gov/immunizations. Minnesota’s vaccine map is at health.state.mn.us/people/immunize/basics/vaxfinder.html.

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University of Minnesota says ICE detained a graduate student

MPR News staff — Fri, 28 Mar 2025 23:52:05 GMT

MINNEAPOLIS — U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials Thursday, March 27 detained a University of Minnesota graduate student at an off-campus residence, according to an email to students and staff from the University of Minnesota.

The international graduate student was enrolled at the school’s Twin Cities campus, according to the email sent Friday evening. The email was signed by University of Minnesota President Rebecca Cunningham, Vice President for Student Affairs Calvin Phillips and Vice President for Equity and Diversity Mercedes Ramírez Fernández.

“The University had no prior knowledge of this incident and did not share any information with federal authorities before it occurred,” the email said. “It is important to note that our campus departments of public safety, including UMPD, do not enforce federal immigration laws, and our officers do not inquire about an individual’s immigration status.”

The news comes days after a Turkish national and doctoral student at Tufts University was detained by U.S. Department of Homeland Security agents. Her lawyer said the arrest came without explanation.

This story was originally published on MPRNews.org.

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NIH cuts funding for Minnesota research on vaccines, health equity

Dené K. Dryden — Thu, 20 Mar 2025 15:13:13 GMT

ROCHESTER — Some Minnesota researchers' grants from the National Institutes of Health were abruptly canceled last week.

"NIH notified us via an email that basically said, 'This project no longer reflects the priorities of NIH, and so funding is terminated immediately,' " said Michael Bronstein, an assistant professor at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities.

Bronstein's study on COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy among people with severe mental illness is one of at least 209 projects that had their NIH awards terminated since late February, via a list released by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Tracking Accountability in Government Grants System.

The bulk of the terminated grants on the TAGGS list had to do with vaccine hesitancy, HIV, Black or Latino communities, and/or sex, gender and LGBTQ+ identities.

Nearly half of the terminated grants were connected to Columbia University in New York City. On the social media platform X, NIH said those cuts follow "directives from the Trump Administration’s Joint Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism."

The terminations affect three projects at the University of Minnesota, including Bronstein's, and two projects at the HealthPartners Institute.

The list did not include any cuts to NIH funding related to Mayo Clinic research.

In addition to Bronstein's study, the canceled Minnesota grants focused on the COVID-19 vaccine and lactation, HPV vaccine promotion by dental providers, and disparities in parenting stress and well-being during the pandemic across gender, sexual identity, race and ethnicity.

Bronstein — a psychologist — and his team were one year into their four-year study, which he said was inspired by Minnesota's COVID-19 vaccine rollout in 2021, when certain vulnerable groups, such as the elderly, were prioritized for vaccine distribution. The vulnerable groups list did not include those with severe mental illness.

"We already knew that people with severe mental illness are about three times more likely to die from vaccine-preventable diseases like influenza or COVID-19," Bronstein said. "So, I wanted to do something about that."

Bronstein, two research assistants and a team of graduate students recruited participants into their study to see if different factors, such as prior experiences with the mental health care system, influenced people's willingness to receive a COVID-19 vaccine.

His lab received $187,261 in 2024, per the project's NIH page. But on March 10, NIH canceled the award.

"This is already after investment of taxpayer money," Bronstein said, "already after investment of a significant amount of time on behalf of my staff and myself, and time for our participants, who trusted us to talk about their mental health experiences."

Now, Bronstein and his team are in the process of applying for new funding to support this project — and to keep their staff and students employed.

"That's been quite a scramble," he said. "And then just trying to reassure my employees that, 'Hey, we're going to do everything we can to ensure the longevity of this group and to ensure that this research still continues.' "

In addition to the NIH email's reasoning that Bronstein's project no longer reflected the agency's priorities, Bronstein said it also claimed the project would not "benefit the American people or their well-being," which Bronstein said is "quite disrespectful of people who will and have lost loved ones to vaccine-preventable diseases."

"(That) part is blatantly and factually incorrect and directly contradicts what our expert reviewers said about the project," he said.

An appeals process exists for terminated NIH grants, Bronstein said, but he expects that process to be difficult, as "they've decided to de-prioritize this work and their initial email indicates that they don't actually care about the facts related to the work."

In a statement, HealthPartners told the Post Bulletin it is not participating in interviews on this topic at this time. The Post Bulletin reached out to the University of Minnesota and the NIH but did not receive responses.

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U of M, Essentia, Fairview to continue talks with facilitator

Brielle Bredsten — Wed, 19 Mar 2025 19:03:11 GMT

ST. PAUL — Negotiations among the University of Minnesota, Fairview Health Services and Essentia Health will enter a new phase.

The Minnesota Attorney General’s Office announced on Wednesday it will select a strategic facilitator to explore potential solutions for the future of academic medicine in the state.

Last month, Fairview announced it was not interested in a merger with the other two entities after being invited to discuss a plan to create an “all-Minnesota health system solution.” The proposed nonprofit entity would be a $1 billion investment over five years from the university and Essentia.

The university system sought to buy back its teaching hospitals from Fairview as an agreement between the two entities will sunset in 2026.

All three systems have agreed to engage in renewed discussions convened by a strategic facilitator at Attorney General Keith Ellison’s request, according to a news release.

“Given the current status of the talks, the time pressure, and the importance of the public interest in getting this right, my office is taking a more active role,” Ellison said in the news release. “The parties have tried to find a resolution in the past, and I commend their efforts; these are complicated matters, however.

"Importantly, the parties recognize the importance of these negotiations to the public interest and they welcome the chance for a fresh start," he said. "I am working with the parties to identify a strategic facilitator to aid the parties in finding a resolution and to prioritize the public interest in the parties’ negotiations.”

The Attorney General’s Office will select the strategic facilitator with input from Essentia, Fairview and the U of M. However, the state will not be responsible for financing the facilitator.

The effort is aimed at moderating the discussions among the three entities, establishing communication guidelines, milestones and deadlines, the news release read.

The attorney general claimed the facilitated discussions will focus on public interest, including the stability and sustainability of patient care, employees, academic research and education, the medical workforce, and the overall quality of health care in Minnesota.

As attorney general, Ellison serves as the primary regulator of Minnesota charities. Engaging a strategic facilitator doesn’t waive his authority to review health care transactions, seek court intervention in cases that aren’t within the public interest, or enforce federal and state antitrust laws.

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U of M says it’s committed to combating antisemitism amid federal probes

Estelle Timar-Wilcox / MPR News — Wed, 12 Mar 2025 17:46:47 GMT

MINNEAPOLIS — The University of Minnesota says it’s working to address antisemitism on campus amid federal investigations spurred by protests against Israel and the recent immigration arrest of a pro-Palestinian organizer.

U of M President Rebecca Cunningham outlined the U’s steps to combat antisemitism in an email to students and staff Monday, March 10.

“There is absolutely no place for antisemitism at the University of Minnesota,” she wrote. “In accordance with our institutional values, we firmly and aggressively reject any and all forms of hatred directed toward members of our Jewish community.”

The university is one of 60 schools under investigation by the U.S. Department of Education. The Department of Justice announced plans to visit the U of M — along with nine other universities — as part of its own investigation into the school.

The investigations are a part of an executive order President Donald Trump signed in January that seeks to “investigate and punish anti-Jewish racism in leftist, anti-American colleges and universities.”

The moves have alarmed pro-Palestinian groups and free speech advocates who say the federal government is cracking down on the right to protest.

The U’s plan to address antisemitism

In her statement to the campus, Cunningham pointed to recent efforts to combat antisemitism. She named improvements to the school’s bias reporting and response system, and said the school has joined the Hillel Campus Climate Initiative, a nationwide project by the Jewish organization Hillel.

She also pointed to efforts to clarify protest policies. The University rolled out guidelines over the summer reminding students to limit sizes, locations and hours of demonstrations. Students violating the rules can face suspension, arrest and other penalties.

On Friday, the Board of Regents is expected to consider a resolution that could limit the kinds of public statements the university’s institutes, centers and academic departments can make. It would bar “institutional statements addressing matters of public concern or public interest.”

Richard Painter, a professor at the U, is urging the regents to approve the resolution. In 2023, Painter and former regent Michael Hsu filed a complaint with the feds over statements critical of Israel that were posted to a College of Liberal Arts departmental website.

Painter suggested that passing the resolution Friday, among other actions, could insulate the university from federal funding cuts as a result of the investigations. Others on campus warn the resolution would muzzle faculty and create a slippery slope toward authoritarianism.

The Trump administration recently pulled $400 million in funding from Columbia University over antisemitism claims stemming from last year’s prominent protests on the campus.

Protesters push back

Trump also warned Monday that he plans to crack down on individual protesters after federal agents arrested a Palestinian activist who helped lead protests at Columbia. ICE agents detained Mahmoud Khalil in New York on Saturday and took him to a federal immigration jail in Louisiana.

Khalil is a legal U.S. resident; a federal judge has ordered that he not be deported yet to give the court time to consider a legal challenge.

The investigations and arrests are raising alarms for protesters and civil rights advocates. The Minnesota Anti-War Committee led a protest Tuesday evening to push back against the arrest and the federal crackdown on students.

“We are concerned that UMN will follow suit and submit information to allow the detention of MN students, faculty, and staff for participating in protests,” Anti-War Committee organizer Meredith Aby said in a statement. “The racist targeting of Khalil aims to instill fear in pro-Palestine activists as well as a warning to others at all university campuses. We are organizing this protest to show community support for the pro-Palestine student movement.”

University leaders recently said the school would only share student information if it is required by a subpoena or court order, as has always been the case. They also say campus law enforcement officers do not participate in immigration enforcement.

This story was originally published on MPRNews.org
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U of M seniors join Minnesota Capitol reporting team

Mary Murphy — Fri, 14 Feb 2025 20:38:00 GMT

ST. PAUL — Forum News Service gained two new Minnesota Capitol reporters this month when Emma Ritter and Jack O’Connor, journalism and political science students from the University of Minnesota, joined as interns for the legislative session.

O’Connor grew up in Southern California and went to San Juan Hills High ��, where joined his high school newspaper and served as photo editor, sports editor and editor-in-chief.

“I didn’t really think I wanted to do journalism,” he said. “I thought I wanted to be a history teacher, but I don’t know, there was something just about writing that really intrigued me.”

O’Connor said he saw the potential impact of journalism after writing a story about a teacher at his high school who had a neurological disease that made physical touch painful.

“I met up with him at an In-N-Out randomly two years later, and he just said it was his favorite story, and that whenever anybody asks him about his journey, he sends them that article,” O’Connor said. “It’s really cool to see the impact like that, that my work can have.”

Ritter is a Minnesota native, growing up in St. Cloud and attending Sartell High ��, where she also worked on her school’s paper. She said a journalism career “was kind of obvious” for her because she always liked to read and write.

“I saw this like little cartoon in high school one time that had newspapers holding up the Capitol, and they were considered like the pillars of democracy,” she said.

Ritter said she didn’t understand the cartoon as a child but began to grasp its meaning when she came to the University of Minnesota. There, she started learning not only about how reporters help inform the public, but also about historically famous cases of investigative journalism.

“It severely impacts who we want in office, who we trust,” she said. “So I think it’s really important for those reasons just to hold people accountable. And there’s not really anyone else to do that.”

O’Connor said journalists are key to allowing people to be involved citizens.

“I think journalism is about both the uncovering of things that are hard to see that are underlying patterns, but there’s also the aspect of everybody needs to know what’s going on,” he said. “And if you want to be a good citizen, you need to know what’s going on, and to know what’s going on, you need journalists.”

O’Connor and Ritter join Minnesota correspondent Mary Murphy covering the Minnesota Legislature and other statewide news out of the Capitol in St. Paul. The internship runs through early May.

O’Connor said he hopes to come out of the internship with a handful of stories he feels proud of, but that he’s also admittedly interested in some of the politics behind policies.

“I’m kind of a political nerd,” he said. “I do like the political gamesmanship of it all … so it has been nice to kind of go into a session where there’s just a lot of moving parts.”

Ritter said she hopes she can help others better understand what’s happening at the Capitol. She said she feels grateful to be able to follow things so closely at the Capitol, being on “ ‘the front line,’ so to speak.”

“I am hoping to learn more for myself, but also help other people who maybe don’t exactly understand what’s going on, especially because there’s just so much,” she said.

In her free time, Ritter can be found “forcing” her roommates to watch “Hamilton,” going to the gym, crocheting or playing with her naughty cat — she is currently sporting a scratch on her left cheek from the feline.

In O’Connor’s free time, he can be found watching YouTube videos with his roommates, going for a run, or working on page layouts for a goat breeding magazine, which O’Connor said he started working for because “it was the funniest thing he could do.”

Readers can reach O’Connor at ocon0571@umn.edu and Ritter at ritte265@umn.edu.

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Fairview Health Services says ‘no’ to merger with the U and Essentia

Nancy Lebens / MPR News — Thu, 13 Feb 2025 16:53:08 GMT

ST. PAUL — Fairview Health Services said Wednesday it is not interested in a merger with the University of Minnesota and Essentia Health.

The U and Essentia back a plan that would create a nonprofit entity and had invited Fairview to be part of the discussion. The university promised that it and Duluth-based Essentia will spend $1 billion over five years to build an “all-Minnesota health system solution.”

Fairview officials say they “have worked diligently to understand the goals of their proposed combination and articulate Fairview’s own needs in any future partnership.”

Fairview owns health care facilities on the U campus, including the teaching hospital for the university’s medical school. In a letter to employees Wednesday, Feb. 12, Fairview President and CEO James Hereford said they still want “resolution on sale of the academic assets.”

The letter also states that Fairview wants to maintain its independence in operating the hospitals and clinics that not only serve patients but also provide training grounds for medical students.

The university currently has an agreement with Fairview that ends next year. In December, the U announced a restructuring plan.

Hereford noted that care should continue, ideally by an “independent nonprofit organization.”

“It is important to note, at no point will the mission of the University of Minnesota Medical �� be abandoned,” Hereford said in the letter, co-signed by John Heinmiller, the chair of Fairview’s board.

“We agree that the medical school is an essential component of the health care ecosystem in Minnesota — and that Fairview should not be alone in supporting their mission. Essentia has now indicated a willingness to support the University. We believe this is a good development. As we have said, our current level of financial support for the medical school is unsustainable.”

In a statement to MPR News, the U said it is “hopeful there is opportunity to build a bold, shared solution that best meets the needs of patients and Minnesota — both now and in the future.”

In a Minnesota Senate health committee meeting Wednesday morning, university President Rebecca Cunningham testified along with Essentia CEO David Herman. Cunningham noted that Fairview was invited to be part of the enterprise.

“Our proposal includes University of Minnesota physicians and University of Minnesota clinics and surgery center,” Cunningham said. “We’ve also invited Fairview Health Services to join us in forging this new identity as a reset in building a new day on the work that has been done in the past, so that together we can create an integrated and seamless system of care.”

The U president then clarified that the relationship with Essentia would be “fundamentally different” from the “joint clinical enterprise” it has with Fairview “which is very transactional.”

In a U-Essentia proposal from Monday that was sent to Fairview, “Newco,” as the entity is being called, would have a shared governance of six directors each from Fairview, the university and Essentia and four members appointed by the board.

Newco would own and operate the “legacy” facilities currently run by Fairview and Essentia as well as the U’s clinics and surgery center. Physicians would be controlled by the U, and services “functionally integrated with Newco.”

Cunningham and Herman said the plan is aimed at boosting rural health care in part by training medical students outside the Twin Cities, which could lead them to staying there. Herman said that consolidation of medical services by Essentia was primarily due to staff shortfalls.

This story was originally published on MPRNews.org
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NIH cuts could affect hundreds of medical studies at Mayo Clinic and University of Minnesota

Christopher Ingraham / Minnesota Reformer — Tue, 11 Feb 2025 18:34:40 GMT

MINNEAPOLIS — Minnesota and 21 other states have sued the National Institutes of Health over the Trump administration’s steep cuts to grants that fund medical research in the United States.

If those cuts are implemented, “cutting edge work to cure and treat human disease will grind to a halt,” the attorneys general wrote.

The cuts involve “indirect costs,” which are the expenses of maintaining the laboratories, computer services, staffing and other administrative overhead of academic research. Institutions currently negotiate these costs individually with the federal government.

The NIH’s average indirect cost rate typically runs around 28%, meaning that every dollar of direct research funding is accompanied by 28 additional cents in indirect funding. The new order would cap that rate at 15%, effectively slashing NIH indirect payments in half.

In Minnesota, Mayo Clinic and the University of Minnesota are the chief recipients of NIH research grants. A preliminary estimate by education policy analyst James Murphy finds that the U stands to lose around $62 million annually under the new formula, while Mayo Clinic would lose about $54 million.

Other Minnesota institutions receiving NIH funding include hospitals, private companies doing medical research, and the Fond du Lac Indian Reservation, according to NIH reports. All told, Minnesota entities stand to lose around $117 million a year, according to Murphy’s estimates.

“The NIH funds critical research into fighting chronic and catastrophic disease in every corner of our country,” Attorney General Keith Ellison said in a statement. “Its work has an impact on countless families across America and helps keep us healthy and extend our lives.”

Rebecca Cunninghan, president of the University of Minnesota, wrote in a letter to colleagues that the cuts are a “direct attack” on the university’s mission, and that they will “slow and limit medical breakthroughs that cure cancer and address chronic diseases such as diabetes and heart disease.”

The NIH website lists more than 659 University of Minnesota projects funded by the grants in fiscal year 2024. They include research into organ transplantation; elderly patients’ ability to fight off infections; the prevalence of blood cancers in Minnesota; Parkinson’s disease treatments; and immunotherapy treatments for certain types of cancer.

The grants also fund hundreds of studies at Mayo Clinic, which in recent years have included research into treatments for degenerative brain disease, breast cancer, osteoporosis, kidney disease and diabetes.

“NIH is obligated to carefully steward grant awards to ensure taxpayer dollars are used in ways that benefit the American people and improve their quality of life,” the agency said in the statement announcing the cuts.

Ellison has also joined lawsuits against the Trump administration’s executive orders on gender-affirming care, birthright citizenship, and overall federal funding.

This story was originally published on MinnesotaReformer.com
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Minnesota hospitals still offering gender-affirming care amid federal challenges

Dené K. Dryden — Sat, 08 Feb 2025 12:00:00 GMT

ROCHESTER — As a handful of U.S. hospitals suspend certain medical services for transgender youth following an executive order on gender-affirming care, Minnesota hospitals appear to be staying the course.

The Jan. 28 executive order by President Donald Trump states that "it is the policy of the United States that it will not fund, sponsor, promote, assist or support" gender-affirming care for minors. The order is being challenged by a federal lawsuit.

Dr. Asa Radix, president of the World Professional Association for Transgender Health, responded to the executive order in a statement, saying "policies that restrict or ban access to necessary medical care for transgender youth are harmful to patients and their families."

Last week, hospitals in Virginia, Washington, D.C., and Colorado announced that they had suspended some gender-affirming care services for patients age 19 and younger, the Associated Press reported. Some child patients at NYU Langone Health in New York City had their gender-affirming care appointments canceled, the New York Times reported, prompting New York Attorney General Letitia James to warn hospitals that refusing that service could break state anti-discrimination law.

In Minnesota, multiple hospitals confirmed that they are still offering gender-affirming care, and no hospitals in the state have publicly announced any cuts or pauses that would affect transgender-specific medical services.

Gender-affirming care is an umbrella term for various medical treatments for transgender and nonbinary individuals. Gender-affirming care can include puberty-blocking medications, psychotherapy, testosterone or estrogen hormone therapy and plastic surgery. Surgeries are rarely performed on transgender minors.

In 2023, in response to a wave of anti-transgender legislation across U.S. states, Minnesota passed new laws that protect access to abortion and gender-affirming care. As a "trans refuge" state, Minnesota law shields trans youth, their guardians and their medical providers against legal actions by states that restrict or ban gender-affirming care for minors.

The majority of health systems in Minnesota that offer gender-affirming care — for youth, adults or both — are clustered in the Twin Cities metro. Two exceptions are Mayo Clinic in Rochester and Essentia Health in Duluth.

Mayo Clinic did not respond to the Post Bulletin's request for comment.

There are no changes to gender-affirming care services at Essentia at this time, a spokesperson said.

Spokespeople for M Health Fairview, Allina Health and Children's Minnesota told the Post Bulletin that services at those health systems have not changed. Children's Minnesota specified that it does not offer gender-affirming surgeries.

Likewise, North Memorial Health said in a written statement that it "is not planning any changes to its gender-affirming care approach at this time."

"Access to gender-affirming care hasn’t changed at Hennepin Healthcare," that health system said in a statement to the Post Bulletin. "As Minnesota’s largest public safety net hospital and healthcare system, we remain committed to serving anyone seeking care."

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