Police remove UW diabetes researcher and other experts from conference

A University of Washington professor was among several people whom police removed from a national meeting of diabetes researchers Friday, as they handed out copies of an editorial that criticizes the Trump administration's cuts to biomedical research.

Dr. Steven Kahn, director of the UW Diabetes Research Center, had flown to New Orleans this week planning to present at a few sessions during the annual American Diabetes Association conference. On Friday morning, he and two other researchers were distributing copies of the editorial - which slams the federal cuts to scientific research funding - at the convention center when they were approached by security guards and police officers, Kahn said.

The officers tried to take the researchers' copies and lanyards away, and escorted them out of the convention center, he said. The researchers later made their way back inside and continued to hand the papers out.

After awhile, one of the police officers and one of the private security guards came to find us," Kahn said in an interview. "Then the police officer told me if we put our feet inside the convention center again, we'd be arrested."

A spokesperson for Louisiana State Police confirmed event organizers had requested their help in removing several people from the event. State troopers did not make any arrests, and all individuals left peacefully, the spokesperson wrote in a statement.

Kahn later said he wasn't scared in the moment, and that he was "willing to be arrested." While the officers did not explicitly say why they could not distribute the editorial, Kahn thought it was clear the American Diabetes Association was worried about repercussions from the Trump administration.

"I don't think they're alone," he added. "I think all professional organizations are worried about their nonprofit status. And so bunches of them have been quieted, in my view. … This cannot carry on."

Kahn was the lead author of the editorial, which was published in Diabetes Care, the association's flagship journal. He's also served as the journal's editor-in-chief for the last four years.

In the editorial, authors warned of future ripple effects of the federal government's cuts to research funding, including to clinical trials and National Institutes of Health staff.

In a video of the incident, Aaron Kelly, a professor of pediatrics at the University of Minnesota who was escorted out with Kahn, says officers grabbed them and forced them outside.

"Censorship is real," Kelly says from behind the camera.

The diabetes association wrote in an email to Kahn hours later that his behavior violated the conference's code of conduct and that officials had "no choice" but to remove him from the meeting. The code of conduct "expects that all participants will conduct themselves in a professional and respectful manner," the association's executive team wrote.

"For the safety of everyone, we must take all demonstrations seriously," said the email, which Kahn shared with The Seattle Times.

The association told Kahn he would not be allowed to participate in the rest of the conference.

"We appreciate the years of service and leadership you have provided to the ADA and those who we serve, and we regret that it came to this," the email said.

The American Diabetes Association did not respond to a request for additional comment Friday.

Kahn called the association's move a "serious mistake."

"The easy thing to do is just let people hand out the pamphlets and make no big deal out of it," Kahn said. "It just seems to me that whatever they thought they should do, they didn't really consider the consequences of their actions.

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This story was originally published June 5, 2026 at 11:36 PM.