Washington, DC ― David Dishneau reported in The Washington Post that Vice President Joe Biden said he’s confident Congress will approve the $1 billion President Obama has requested for cancer research and help pave the way toward cures for all types of cancer — a goal scientists say could be reached by using patients’ immune systems to destroy cancer cells.
Biden spoke at the launch of a new immunotherapy institute at Johns Hopkins University funded by $125 million in donations from former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, philanthropist Sidney Kimmel and others.
“I’m convinced not only will we save millions of lives but we will once again re-instill in the American public the attitude, and I mean this from the bottom of my heart, that anything — anything — is possible,” Biden told a gathering of Hopkins researchers and medical students, plus elected officials including Gov. Larry Hogan, a cancer survivor.
Biden spoke at the launch of a new immunotherapy institute at Johns Hopkins University funded by $125 million in donations from former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, philanthropist Sidney Kimmel and others.
“I’m convinced not only will we save millions of lives but we will once again re-instill in the American public the attitude, and I mean this from the bottom of my heart, that anything — anything — is possible,” Biden told a gathering of Hopkins researchers and medical students, plus elected officials including Gov. Larry Hogan, a cancer survivor.
The vice president, whose son Beau died from brain cancer in May, is leading the administration’s effort to accelerate the quest for cancer cures, which President Barack Obama has likened to a manned mission to the moon.
Obama is requesting $755 million in addition to the $195 million in new cancer funding Congress approved in its budget deal late last year.
“I predict we will add another billion dollars to cancer research this year,” Biden said. “It’s the one thing that there’s overwhelming domestic consensus about, crossing party lines.”
He said the funds, together with the $125 million in private donations, would boost research at Hopkins’ new Bloomberg-Kimmel Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy.
School officials said the donations include $50 million each from Bloomberg, a 1964 Hopkins graduate, and Kimmel, founder of Jones Apparel Group, plus a total of $25 million from more than a dozen other supporters.
For comparison, the American Cancer Society spends about $150 million a year on all types of cancer research, said Dr. Otis Brawley, the society’s chief medical officer.
For Dishneau’s full story, click here.
Obama is requesting $755 million in addition to the $195 million in new cancer funding Congress approved in its budget deal late last year.
“I predict we will add another billion dollars to cancer research this year,” Biden said. “It’s the one thing that there’s overwhelming domestic consensus about, crossing party lines.”
He said the funds, together with the $125 million in private donations, would boost research at Hopkins’ new Bloomberg-Kimmel Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy.
School officials said the donations include $50 million each from Bloomberg, a 1964 Hopkins graduate, and Kimmel, founder of Jones Apparel Group, plus a total of $25 million from more than a dozen other supporters.
For comparison, the American Cancer Society spends about $150 million a year on all types of cancer research, said Dr. Otis Brawley, the society’s chief medical officer.
For Dishneau’s full story, click here.
