The pill and ovarian cancer prevention.

have a successful career in science,” he said. “While that’s good for the development office, it represents a complete change of career path for him.” Also, several previously successful junior clinician–scientists “are reconsidering whether being physician–scientists is a successful career path for them.” Linda Malkas, Ph.D., deputy director of basic science research at City of Hope in Duarte, Calif., said she recently received five CVs from postdoctoral researchers looking for work because their mentors lost their grants. With her budget already tight and scant prospects for improvement next year, she can’t give them a second look even though she was part of a team that identified a class of compounds that can directly bind to proliferating cell nuclear antigen, a potential anticancer target because it is required for DNA replication. “I’ve developed small molecules that could actually become new drugs,” she said. “This is the joy of my life. I’d like to hire another postdoc, but I feel the need to conserve resources.” She fears that the U.S. is about to lose two generations of scientists—not only unemployed postdoctoral researchers but also science-oriented physicians in training or college graduates who will avoid research careers because of what happens to young physician–scientists who took that path. “It’s like musical chairs, with a growing pool of postdocs circling around a shrinking number of principal investigators who are getting funded,” she said. “What are we going to do with all these people who have been training to do this all their lives? We’re watching them lose their dreams.”