Work in Brugge’s lab slowed significantly last year. In April, her $7 million grant from the National Cancer Institute at the National Institutes of Health was frozen, along with virtually all other federal money awarded to Harvard researchers. The Trump administration said it was withholding the funds over the university’s handling of antisemitism on campus. Some of Brugge’s lab staff lost federal fellowships that funded their work. Brugge told others funded through the NIH grant that she couldn’t guarantee their salaries. In all, Brugge lost seven of her 18 lab employees. In September, the funding for the NIH grant was restored. But in the intervening months, the Trump administration said Brugge and other Harvard researchers needn’t bother applying for the next round of multiyear grants. A federal judge lifted that ban, but Brugge had missed the deadline to apply for renewal. So her current funding will end in August. Brugge scrambled to secure private funding from foundations and philanthropists. She was then able to reinstate two positions for at least a year — but job applicants are wary.