President Joe Biden announced an award of $23 million to Tulane University for the creation of an imaging system to give surgeons the ability to scan tumors during surgery to determine in just minutes if any cancer tissue has been left behind. The President said this will transform surgery as we know it.
“The surgery happens, and you have to wait a week or more to see if the tumor was removed fully. That anxiety of waiting and the unknown is just excruciating. But today we’re a step closer to relieving that burden on patients and families,” said President Biden.
First Lady Jill Biden said the loss of their Beau son to brain cancer in 2015 inspired the creation of the Biden Cancer Moonshot initiative. Launched in 2016, the program has created more than 95 programs, policies, and resources to accelerate cancer research.
“We decided to turn our pain into purpose. We wanted to help families like ours so that they won’t experience this terrible loss,” said Jill Biden.
While visiting cancer projects across the globe President Biden said he would ask if researchers were sharing their findings. That’s part of the Moonshot initiative to create collaborative effort.
“It really angered me. Scientists weren’t sharing the results with other scientists. That’s one of the first things we tried to do, is break down the silos, so that information is available for everybody,” said President Biden.
Tuesday’s visit to New Orleans was President Biden’s first public event planned since he exited his re-election campaign. His daughter Ashley is a 2003 graduate of Tulane.
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