** Brokerage Leerink Partners says that about $4 billion of expected cost cuts at the National Institutes of Health will disproportionately impact large private academic institutions, research centers and medical schools

** NIH, the U.S. government's largest source of federal funds for medical research, plans to reduce indirect costs across both existing and future grants related to biomedical research

** The "U.S. academic system has not experienced such a magnitude of funding cuts and at such a speed" - Leerink

** Brokerage sees the worst sales impact for life sciences technology firms 10x Genomics TXG.O and Quanterix QTRX.O in Q1 as researchers get cautious and pause purchases of instruments dramatically

** Gene sequencing equipment maker Illumina ILMN.O, already on China's "unreliable entity" list, could also see "meaningful impact" as academic and research institutes make up a major part of its customer base

** Medical device maker Thermo Fisher Scientific TMO.N will face more impact than rival Danaher DHR.N due to a relatively higher exposure to institutions

** In the last 12 months, TGX stock fell 69.51%, QTRX fell 66.11%, ILMN fell 18.27%, BRKR fell 35.76%, DHR fell 18.32% and RGEN fell 19.55%

(Reporting by Siddhi Mahatole)

((siddhiprabhanjan.mahatole@thomsonreuters.com))