Like many undergrads in science fields, Cindy Wu was intrigued by an academic career in research. After the biology major graduated in 2011, she worked as a research assistant at the University of Washington in Seattle, her alma mater. While there, she wanted to repurpose a treatment for anthrax to help clear up staph infections, but wasn’t sure how to get money for her idea. When she approached her adviser about it, Wu recalls he had this to say: “The system doesn’t fund people like you: The amount of money you need is too small, and you don’t have enough preliminary data to make a case.”