Academic medical centers are positioning themselves to deal with the changing times. Since funding cuts and significant regulatory leadership turnover were announced by the Trump-Vance administration, hospitals, and medical centers working in cell and gene therapies are under a new set of pressures that could impact the future of the space.
Academic medical centers in the US are driven by two things: their patients and the future. Patients treated at academic medical centers have the most complex diseases and are often in search of novel treatments for their specific conditions. That is why the future is so important: the next generation of care providers training there will bring new ideas and treatments, pushing the science of healthcare even further.
Funding creativity
The expansion of cell and gene therapy (CGT) technologies is constrained by the number of trained scientists and funding available, and we have seen massive upheaval on both sides of that equation. Changes announced to National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding (and even more so, uncertainty about what changes are yet to materialize) are forcing universities to focus and get creative.
In instances where NIH grants for promising research are no longer as accessible as they had been, sponsors are being asked to invest more in the early phases. There will, of course, be new strings attached in order to fund the whole ecosystem this way. That will mean more exclusivity considerations.
Right now, programs are seeing a high level of project churn – the frequency at which resources and team members change throughout any on project – from very calculated investments by sponsors that cut treatments that do not progress on schedule. Academic medical centers, however, require budget sustainability. On the funding side, they may explore bundled research projects or multi-project deals with sponsors at pre-negotiated rates to keep sponsor funding more stable. Those deals would raise concerns about the institutions’ credibility, so partners will need to draw clear lines around the research phases.
Medical centers are also exploring creative new ways to share costs and create funding streams. These include supply-oriented networks with shared GMP laboratories for complementary products across organizations. This additional networking will likely result in more standardized regulation processes, supplies, governance, standard operating procedures (SOPs), quality, and reach of distribution. They are also exploring efficiencies in lab practices and supplies, and opportunities to serve more customers.
Staffing competition
The primary constraint on the growth of CGT treatment has always been trained staff. We have seen hundreds of layoffs at NIH and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and projects cancelled at academic research centers. While some institutions have been hit harder than others, the pressure has swept across the largest names in medical research. On the surface, this could be an opportunity in a market where highly trained researchers have long been hard to find: there is a new influx of researchers in the talent pool.
However, according to a 2025 survey, while workforce mobility may increase, the shift would not be straightforward. For one, a postdoc who has devoted years to a certain disease or therapy may be more willing to change geographies than specialties. Canadian and European research centers are openly recruiting US researchers and staff – and the UK recently reorganized regulations to make it easier to get clearance for certain research. These countries, and the pharma units based there, see the opportunity and are increasing funding for their projects, making themselves more attractive to American researchers.
There are still too few bench technicians available, and there was already tremendous competition for program leadership, medical directors in particular. Staffing – and steady leadership – may be the biggest challenge ahead for CGT treatment development.
Logistics
Another hot topic for CGT labs at academic medical centers is how to balance the practical supply chain, quickly evolving regulatory standards, and data collection needs for multiple projects in research that need rapid solutions. There are physical space constraints for GMP labs, and the supply chain is still maturing – even as a treatment moves into approved manufacturing, it is still a relatively small batch compared to other university programs. Researchers examining such challenges in California conclude simply that, “Facilities that fail to adapt risk losing their competitive edge.”
That may be the bottom line on all the issues related to CGT treatment and research: academic medical centers and related labs must adapt quickly. Driven by their patient-centered mission and professional ambition, we should expect US academic medical centers and the worldwide community of CGT experts to change rapidly.
Projects come and go quicker than they used to, and the new pressures will only accelerate that churn. It means research centers need a highly adaptive supply chain, and a highly adaptive way to manage both incoming and outgoing inventory. The reality is, paper won't work – it is increasingly critical to move away from paper and towards management systems that direct users in compliance. Furthermore, automation will be a key attribute for attracting funding, signaling a commitment to eliminating waste.
Collaboration will be the key driver of advances needed to maintain momentum in CGT. Biopharma will need to work more closely with academic medical centers to ensure they have the resources necessary to support all the infrastructure that goes into bringing these therapies to patients. That includes systems to allow for quick onboarding, as well as key resources including training, equipment, and tailored management systems.
That collaboration needs to go well beyond the walls of one organization, one sector, or even national borders. There must be a new push to use data to focus and refine these partnerships to find new ways of creating a functional CGT business ecosystem. To get there, sponsors need to better understand the challenges that academic medical centers are facing – and be full partners in addressing them.
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