. >> reporter: including lesley wassef-birosik. she was quadro's first postdoctoral fellow and came to the u.s. from australia in 2006. but after seven and a half years in quadro's lab, she decided to switch careers. she's now working as a medical writer. >> reporter: i mean, that's a big decision, to change course like that? >> yeah. it was a tough decision. i thought i could do it. but i was very naive. i didn't see how hard it was to get a grant. and no matter who you spoke to no matter which lab you spoke to, everyone would say, "it was tough." >> what wakes me up at night is this next generation and what's happening to them. and they're invariably excited about the science that they're doing, but invariably anxious about where there's a future. >> reporter: the environment for science funding has left some questioning whether the united states will remain the same worldwide leader in science research that attracted loredana quadro and so many others here. a recent survey of scientists in the u.s. by advocates for more funding