STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
We have an update this morning on the story of a researcher at Cornell University who is developing an artificial heart for babies and toddlers.
JAMES ANTAKI: It's about the size of a AA battery, and it's so close to being used to save lives and children.
INSKEEP: James Antaki was among the researchers who had their federal grants canceled by the Trump administration as it tried to impose its power on universities.
ANTAKI: We feel like collateral damage.
INSKEEP: And then, Cornell became the third elite college to make a deal with the administration over claims of antisemitism and accusations that diversity programs are racial discrimination. NPR's Elissa Nadworny brings us up to date.
ELISSA NADWORNY, BYLINE: I spoke to James Antaki a few days after he got the email officially restarting decades of work on the PediaFlow - an implantable artificial heart.
ANTAKI: I think the overwhelming reaction was this relief and maybe disbelief.
NADWORNY: Antaki's grant was among about $250 million in federal grants restored after Cornell made a deal with the White House, formally accepting the administration's interpretation of civil rights laws. Part of the deal requires the Ivy League school to pay the government $30 million and also invest $30 million in agriculture over the next three years. Now the rebuilding has to begin, which Antaki says is daunting.
ANTAKI: Every time I feel sorry for myself, I have to catch myself and say, This is not about me. It's so much bigger than me.
NADWORNY: About 1 in 100 babies in the U.S. are born with congenital heart defects. Antaki's device would help young kids with the most serious conditions, like Caleb, the 4-year-old boy and his mom, Nora Strickland, that we met in our original story. I called them to share the news.
Dr. Antaki's grant was unfrozen.
NORA STRICKLAND: Oh, my God. Are you serious? Wow. I just got goosebumps.
NADWORNY: This renews her hope for families like hers. Caleb is on an artificial heart called a VAD, awaiting a transplant at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. Caleb's VAD hangs outside his skinny little body, and it has to be plugged into the wall, meaning he and his family can't go home.
How is Caleb doing in general?
STRICKLAND: He's good. He's doing really well. Doesn't let the VAD keep him from being him.
NADWORNY: She sends me a video of Caleb building a volcano with Magna Tiles.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
CALEB STRICKLAND: We're going to have another mini volcano. Record the eruption.
STRICKLAND: Alright.
(SOUNDBITE OF MAGNA TILES COLLAPSING)
STRICKLAND: Whoa.
NADWORNY: He knocks the creation over. Later, Nora tells Caleb the news of Antaki's grant.
STRICKLAND: How does that make you feel that you changed the course of medical history?
CALEB: Good.
STRICKLAND: Yeah?
CALEB: So did I change, like, the wall or something?
STRICKLAND: You did, Bubby (ph). Because one day, kids aren't going to have to stay in the hospital when they have a VAD. One day, they're going to have a VAD that they can go home on.
CALEB: Now can we play video games?
STRICKLAND: (Laughter) Yeah. I'm just really proud of you.
NADWORNY: Back in Ithaca, New York, Dr. Antaki has a long road ahead. He has to rehire a team, line up a manufacturer for the prototype, and then prepare to test the pump in animals.
Elissa Nadworny, NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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