Comment from Alan Cohen

I am a researcher and scientist at a major medical research institution, and I conduct research on how to help people maintain health as they age. I am writing to comment on Section 200.220, which would prohibit international collaboration. If this takes effect, it will severely hamper my ability to do cutting edge research. My research relies on understanding how health during aging differs across countries and contexts - in order to make Americans healthy, it's crucial to understand how we are or are not different from people in other countries. For example, my research has shown that inflammation during aging is not universal across countries around the world. This crucial finding changes how we think about the role of inflammation as we age, and how and whether we should target it therapeutically. If I don't have access to simple, easy collaboration with colleagues around the world, and the datasets they curate, I cannot make such comparisons. I regularly use US data too, but my research requires both. Science knows no borders, and almost all of my research relies on international collaborations in one way or another. In many cases, a researcher from another country may have specific expertise required to advance a project, and without the specific combination of our expertises the project cannot advance. For these reasons, enacting Section 200.220 would do immeasurable harm to our ability to conduct cutting-edge research. I urge you not to finalize Section 200.220 and to withdraw the rule in its entirety.