The Mass. judge temporarily blocked the cuts from taking effect earlier this month in response to separate lawsuits filed by 22 states.

NIH’s plan to reduce indirect funds faced immense backlash from researchers. A federal judge ruled to extend the halt to cuts until a final decision is made.

Pausing Federal Register notice publication means numerous NIH study sections and advisory councils -- panels of subject experts who evaluate each grant application -- can't meet to make decisions on those proposals.

The new National Institutes of Health policy would strip research groups of hundreds of millions of dollars to cover so-called indirect expenses of studying Alzheimer’s, cancer, heart disease and a host of other illnesses — anything from clinical trials of new treatments to basic lab research that is the foundation for discoveries.

Boston Mayor Michelle Wu co-led a coalition of more than 40 mayors across the country in filing an amicus brief to stop the cuts.

A court battle is set to resume Friday over the Trump administration’s drastic cuts in medical research funding that many scientists say will endanger patients and delay new