WORCESTER, Mass. - Patients, researchers and community advocates meet at UMass Chan Medical School in Worcester Thursday to discuss how proposed National Institutes of Health funding cuts could impact them. 

Congressman Jim McGovern hosted the round table.

The school said the goal was to share real stories on how funding has helped not only their research, but patients. 

Earlier this month, the NIH announced it was limiting funding for "indirect costs" to 15%.

A Massachusetts federal judge issued a temporary restraining order, which bars its attempt to cut the funding. 

As Spectrum News One previously reported, the Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce said the medical school received nearly $200 million in NIH grants last year.

"Effectively every single lab in these buildings has an NIH funded researcher in it, and many of them have more than one grant so that they can expand their work and have a greater impact” said Dean Terence Flotte, MD.

"The testimonies, not just from the researchers and the doctors and the providers, but, from the families and the patients, I thought was incredibly moving” said Congressman McGovern. “It reminds us, it should remind all of us, about the importance of programs like Medicaid and the importance of investing in medical research." 

The chamber said the medical school could see a reduction of nearly $80 to $90 million in funding with the planned cuts.

Another court hearing for the NIH proposed cuts is set for Friday.