The best and brightest young scientists are looking beyond the U.S. as cuts hit home

Top scientists are cutting staff at their labs. Postdocs are fleeing to the country. Here's how the Trump cuts are playing out at the University of Washington.

Jack Castelli had it all figured out.

The University of Washington doctoral student had spent the past three years developing new gene-editing techniques that could spur immunity to the virus that causes AIDS. Early testing in mice showed promising results. His research group hoped it could develop into a treatment, or even a cure, for HIV.

Castelli, who is Canadian, saw two career paths after his graduation this spring: He could join a U.S. biotech company, or he could find a postdoctoral position at a U.S. university or research laboratory.

“This is where the money is at and where all the clinical trials are happening,” Castelli said, making the U.S. “the only place in my mind I could push that forward.”

Then the Trump administration’s science cuts hit.