Federal regulators have halted human subject research at the New York State Psychiatric Institute, which is affiliated with Columbia University, following the suicide of a research participant. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is investigating the institute’s safety protocols and has restricted its ability to conduct any research supported by the agency. The institute voluntarily paused all studies involving human subjects prior to the federal order. This decision affected 417 studies, of which 198 had ongoing participation and 124 received federal funding. The suspension of research suggests that investigators are concerned about potential safety protocol violations throughout the institute. Currently, there are nearly 500 ongoing studies with a combined budget of $86 million at the institute. The investigation was prompted by a suicide that occurred during a clinical trial led by Dr. Bret Rutherford, who has since resigned from the institute and is no longer a faculty member at Columbia. The institute’s top priority is the health and safety of its research participants, and it is cooperating with federal agencies to strengthen its research compliance and monitoring programs. The institute is also conducting a safety review of non-federally funded human research studies. The National Institutes of Health has requested an external audit of all federally funded research at the institute. The suicide was reported earlier by Spectrum, a news site focusing on autism research. The trial that the individual was participating in was testing the effectiveness of levodopa, a drug for Parkinson’s disease, as a treatment for depression and reduced mobility in older individuals. The trial, which began in 2018 and received funding from the National Institute of Mental Health, aimed to recruit 90 adults over the age of 60. So far, the trial has experienced dropouts and methodological errors, and several scientific journals have retracted studies from Dr. Rutherford’s laboratory. The suicide is under investigation, and the reasons for the halt in other studies have not been disclosed.