The squeeze in scientific research

AS A female researcher who for the last 20 years has tried with varying degrees of success to juggle family and career , I was thrilled to discover, from yesterday's front page teaser to the Health/Science section, that the "burden eases for female researchers." Good for Massachusetts General Hospital, and they deserve a bit of publicity, but $60,000 in grants for two years for fewer than 0.01 percent of the female researchers in the country does not a burden ease ("Mass. General grants to women scientists help plug 'leaky pipeline' between grad school and tenure," Page C1, March 5). In fact, it sidesteps the problems endemic to the scientific career structure that make it impossible for female researchers to take their eye off the ball for even a minute .

Unfortunately, it's not only female researchers who need their burdens eased . The collapse of federal support for biomedical research in general means that we are losing the next generation of scientific researchers. They've concluded that when your job depends on grant support that you have a slim chance of getting, this is not a user friendly career structure . This is bad news for America and, in particular, for Boston, whose growth depends on this kind of intellectual capital -- capital that is now reinvesting itself elsewhere in droves.

KARINA MEIRI
Boston

The writer is professor of anatomy and cellular biology, neuroscience, and pharmacology at Tufts School of Medicine.