By Hannah Green
Dominique Verhelle came to the United States in 1999 for postdoctoral training after completing a Ph.D. in her homeland of France. At the time, she had few reservations about the move: The U.S. was the best place in the world to pursue a career in science.
Verhelle went on to build a life sciences career in the U.S. as a leader at companies like Takeda, Celgene and Pfizer. She’s now the CEO of Boston-based NextRNA Therapeutics.
More than two decades later, as the Trump administration attempts a crackdown on immigration, as well as cuts to NIH funding and FDA layoffs, Verhelle says she’s not so sure she’d make the same decision.
“All of these together are making it so uncertain that if I was in France right now as a young scientist who just got my Ph.D., I don’t think I would come to the U.S.,” Verhelle said. “I would look out to go to Europe.”
The federal administration has been heavily scrutinizing green cards and valid visas, and in some cases, deporting people living in the United States.
The crackdown is of concern to the local life sciences industry, which attracts people from around the world to live and work in Boston. More than 43% of U.S. life scientists were immigrants in 2018, according to a report from the research fund New American Economy.
“(If) the administration makes it very difficult for scientists to come to the U.S., they are going to go somewhere else. And I think it’s going to be a big loss for us,” Verhelle said.
Academic researchers an early target
Academia was one of the first targets of the Trump administration. In March, a Brown University professor and doctor who held a valid visa was deported because the Department of Homeland Security said she attended a Hezbollah leader’s funeral during a recent trip to Lebanon. That same month, France said a French scientist was denied entry to the U.S. because of an opinion he expressed about the Trump administration’s policies on academic research.
Angelika Fretzen, COO and technology translation director at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University, said researchers are concerned about traveling, whether to a conference or to visit their homes.
“We have a lot of postdocs coming from all over the world who want to do research here, and are fantastic,” said Fretzen, who is originally from Germany. “It’s a big decision to go into another country anyway, but it’s an even bigger decision if you’re not sure that you can freely move and see your family back home or go to conferences and exchange in other countries with other scientists.”
In the long run, Fretzen believes the crackdown will hold people back from coming to do their research in the U.S.
“It’s really a big shame, because a lot of us went into science, because it’s not bound to one country or one problem. It’s really a global, cross functional, collaborative exchange. And it would be a real shame if you disrupt that,” Fretzen said.
Impact spreads to biotech
Verhelle said these ripple effects will soon reach biotech and pharma, as many researchers come to the U.S. as postdocs and then bring their expertise in drug development into the industry.
Verhelle said the impact on the biotech workforce won’t be immediate. The entire industry is going through a slump that has led to layoffs across the sector. In Massachusetts, 21 Massachusetts life sciences companies announced layoffs impacting at least 1,000 employees within the first three months of 2025. So, there are plenty of workers on the market looking for jobs.
But a brain drain would impact drug discovery efforts in the U.S. eventually. In Massachusetts, one-third of all workers in the medical equipment and supplies manufacturing industry were born outside the U.S., according to studies.
“If we don’t have the scientists, then now we are missing a part of the diversity of thought, and this definitely is going to have an impact on how we are going to be able to continue to develop drugs,” Verhelle said.