Biden announces $150 million in research grants as part of his 'moonshot' push to fight cancer

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — President Joe Biden is zeroing in on the policy goals closest to his heart now that he's no longer seeking a second term, visiting New Orleans on Tuesday to promote his administration's "moonshot" initiative aiming to dramatically reduce cancer deaths.

The president and first lady Jill Biden toured medical facilities that receive federal funding to investigate cancer treatments at Tulane University. Researchers used a piece of raw meat to demonstrate how they are working to improve scanning technology to quickly distinguish between healthy and cancerous cells during surgeries.

The Bidens then championed the announcement of $150 million in awards from the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health. Those will support eight teams of researchers around the country working on ways to help surgeons more successfully remove tumors from people with cancer. It brings the total amount awarded by the agency to develop breakthrough treatments for cancers to $400 million.

Cancer surgery “takes the best surgeons and takes its toll on families,” Biden said. He said the demonstration of cutting-edge technology he witnessed would offer doctors a way to visualize tumors in real time, reducing the need for follow-on surgeries.

“We’re moving quickly because we know that all families touched by cancer are in a race against time,” Biden said.

The teams receiving awards include ones from Tulane, Dartmouth College, Johns Hopkins University, Rice University, the University of California, San Francisco, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, the University of Washington and Cision Vision in Mountain View, California.

Before he leaves office in January, Biden hopes to move the U.S. closer to the goal he set in 2022 to cut U.S. cancer fatalities by 50% over the next 25 years, and to improve the lives of caregivers and those suffering from cancer.

“I’m a congenital optimist about what Americans can do," Biden said. “There’s so much that we’re doing. It matters”

Experts say the objective is attainable — with adequate investments.

“We’re curing people of diseases that we previously thought were absolutely intractable and not survivable,” said Karen Knudsen, CEO of the American Cancer Society and the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network.

Cancer is the second-highest killer of people in the U.S. after heart disease. This year alone, the American Cancer Society estimates that 2 million new cases will be diagnosed and 611,720 people will die of cancer diseases.

Still, "if all innovation ended today and we could just get people access to the innovations that we know about right now, we think we could reduce cancer mortality by another 20 to 30%,” Knudsen said.

The issue is personal enough for Biden that, in his recent Oval Office address about bowing out of the 2024 campaign, the president promised to keep fighting for “my cancer moonshot so we can end cancer as we know it."

"Because we can do it,” Biden said then.

He said in that speech that the initiative would be a priority of his final months in office, along with working to strengthen the economy and defend abortion rights, protecting children from gun violence and making changes to the Supreme Court, which he called “extreme" in its current makeup during a recent event.

Both the president and first lady have had lesions removed from their skin in the past that were determined to be basal cell carcinoma, a common and easily treated form of cancer. In 2015, their eldest son, Beau, died of an aggressive brain cancer at age 46.

“It’s not just personal," Biden said Tuesday. "It’s about what’s possible.”

The president's public schedule has been much quieter since he left the race and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris, making Tuesday's trip stand out.

Advocates have praised Biden for keeping the spotlight on cancer, bringing stakeholders together and gathering commitments from private companies, nonprofit organizations and patient groups.

They say that the extra attention the administration has paid has put the nation on track to cut cancer death rates by at least half, preventing more than 4 million deaths from the disease, by 2047. It has done so by bolstering access to cancer treatments and reminding people of the importance of screening, which hit a setback during the coronavirus pandemic.

“President Biden’s passion and commitment to this effort has made monumental differences for the entire cancer community, including those who are suffering from cancer,” said Jon Retzlaff, the chief policy officer at the American Association for Cancer Research.

Looking ahead, Retzlaff said, “The No. 1 thing is for us to see robust, sustained and predictable annual funding support for the National Institutes of Health. And, if we see that through NIH and through the National Cancer Institute, the programs that have been created through the cancer moonshot will be allowed to continue.”

Initiatives under Biden include changes that make screening and cancer care more accessible to more people, said Knudsen, with the American Cancer Society.

For instance, Medicare has started to pay for follow-up colonoscopies if a stool-based test suggests cancer, she said, and Medicare will now pay for navigation services to guide patients through the maze of their cancer care.

“You’ve already paid for the cancer research. You’ve already paid for the innovation. Now let’s get it to people,” Knudsen said.

She also said she'd like to see the next administration pursue a ban on menthol-flavored cigarettes, which she said could save 654,000 lives over the next 40 years.

Scientists now understand that cancer is not a single disease, but hundreds of diseases that respond differently to different treatments. Some cancers have biomarkers that can be targeted by existing drugs that will slow a tumor’s growth. Many more targets await discovery.

“We hope that the next administration, whoever it may be, will continue to keep the focus and emphasis on our national commitment to end cancer as we know it,” said Dr. Crystal Denlinger, CEO of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network, a group of elite cancer centers.

Johnson reported from Washington state.

President Joe Biden talks with reporters Tuesday, Aug. 13, 2024, at Louis Armstrong International Airport in New Orleans. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

President Joe Biden greets former New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu and his wife Cheryl Tuesday, Aug. 13, 2024, at Louis Armstrong International Airport in New Orleans. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

President Joe Biden listens as Tulane University President Michael Fitts speaks during a demonstration of cancer research and detection techniques at Tulane University, Tuesday, Aug. 13, 2024, in New Orleans. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden listen during a demonstration of cancer research and detection techniques at Tulane University, Tuesday, Aug. 13, 2024, in New Orleans. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

President Joe Biden, escorted by Air Force Col. Angela Ochoa, Commander, 89th Airlift Wing, walks to Air Force One as he arrives to depart, Tuesday, Aug. 13, 2024, at Joint Base Andrews, Md., en route to New Orleans. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden board Air Force One as they arrive to depart, Tuesday, Aug. 13, 2024, at Joint Base Andrews, Md., en route to New Orleans. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

President Joe Biden speaks to reporters as he departs the White House for a trip to New Orleans, Tuesday, Aug. 13, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

President Joe Biden speaks to reporters as he departs the White House for a trip to New Orleans, Tuesday, Aug. 13, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

President Joe Biden speaks to reporters as he departs the White House for a trip to New Orleans, Tuesday, Aug. 13, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

President Joe Biden speaks to reporters as he leaves the White House for a trip to New Orleans, La., Tuesday, Aug. 13, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

President Joe Biden walks to speak to reporters as he leaves the White House for a trip to New Orleans, La., Tuesday, Aug. 13, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

President Joe Biden walks to speak to reporters as he leaves the White House for a trip to New Orleans, La., Tuesday, Aug. 13, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

President Joe Biden speaks to reporters as he departs the White House for a trip to New Orleans, Tuesday, Aug. 13, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

President Joe Biden, escorted by Air Force Col. Angela Ochoa, Commander, 89th Airlift Wing, walks to Air Force One as he arrives to depart, Tuesday, Aug. 13, 2024, at Joint Base Andrews, Md., en route to New Orleans. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

FILE - President Joe Biden speaks on the cancer moonshot initiative at the John F. Kennedy Library and Museum, Sept. 12, 2022, in Boston. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

President Joe Biden speaks to reporters as he departs the White House for a trip to New Orleans, Tuesday, Aug. 13, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

STOCKHOLM (AP) — The Nobel memorial prize in economics was awarded Monday to Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson and James A. Robinson for research that explains why societies with poor rule of law and exploitative institutions do not generate sustainable growth.

The three economists “have demonstrated the importance of societal institutions for a country’s prosperity,” the Nobel committee of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said at the announcement in Stockholm.

Acemoglu and Johnson work at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Robinson conducts his research at the University of Chicago.

“Reducing the vast differences in income between countries is one of our time’s greatest challenges. The laureates have demonstrated the importance of societal institutions for achieving this,” Jakob Svensson, Chair of the Committee for the Prize in Economic Sciences, said.

He said their research has provided "a much deeper understanding of the root causes of why countries fail or succeed.”

Reached by the academy in Athens, Greece, where he is due to speak at a conference, the Turkish-born Acemoglu, 57, said he was surprised and shocked by the award.

“You never expect something like this," he said.

Acemoglu said the research honored by the prize underscores the value of democratic institutions.

“I think broadly speaking the work that we have done favors democracy,” he said in a telephone call with the Nobel committee and reporters in Stockholm.

But he added that “democracy is not a panacea. Introducing democracy is very hard. When you introduce elections, that sometimes creates conflict.”

Asked about how economic growth in countries like China fits into the theories, Acemoglu said that "my perspective is generally that these authoritarian regimes, for a variety of reasons, are going to have a harder time ... in achieving ... long-term sustainable innovation outcomes.”

Acemoglu and Robinson wrote the 2012 bestseller “Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty,’’ which argued that manmade problems were responsible for keeping countries poor.

In their work, the winners looked, for instance, at the city of Nogales, which straddles the U.S.-Mexico border.

Despite sharing the same geography, climate, many of the same ancestors and a common culture, life is very different on either side of the border. In Nogales, Arizona, to the north, residents are relatively well-off and live long lives; most children graduate from high school. To the south, in Mexico’s Nogales, Sonora, “residents here are in general considerably poorer. ... Organized crime makes starting and running companies risky. Corrupt politicians are difficult to remove," the Nobel committee wrote.

The difference, the economists found, is a U.S. system that protects property rights and gives citizens a say in their government.

Acemoglu expressed worry Monday that democratic institutions in the United States and Europe were losing support from the population. “Democracies particularly underperform when the population thinks they underdeliver," he said. “This is a time when democracies are going through a rough patch. … It is, in some sense, quite crucial that they reclaim the high ground of better governance."

The economists also studied the institutional changes that European powers such as Britain and Spain put in place when they colonized much of the world starting in the 1600s. They brought different policies to different places, giving later researchers a “natural experiment" to analyze.

Colonies that were sparsely populated offered less resistance to foreign rule and therefore attracted more settlers. In those places, colonial governments tended to establish more inclusive economic institutions that “incentivized settlers to work hard and invest in their new homeland. In turn, this led to demands for political rights that gave them a share of profits,” according to the Nobel committee.

In more densely populated places that attracted fewer settlers, the colonial regimes limited political rights and set up institutions that focused on “benefiting a local elite at the expense of the wider population ... Paradoxically, this means that the parts of the colonized world that were relatively the most prosperous around 500 years ago are now those that are relatively poor.” India’s industrial production, for example, exceeded the American colonies’ in the 18th century.

The economics prize is formally known as the Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel. The central bank established it in 1968 as a memorial to Nobel, the 19th-century Swedish businessman and chemist who invented dynamite and established the five Nobel Prizes.

Though Nobel purists stress that the economics prize is technically not a Nobel Prize, it is always presented together with the others on Dec. 10, the anniversary of Nobel's death in 1896.

Nobel honors were announced last week in medicine, physics, chemistry, literature and peace.

Corder reported from The Hague, Netherlands.

Journalists listen when Jan Teorell of the Nobel assembly announces the Nobel memorial prize in economics winners during a press meeting at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm, Sweden, Monday Oct. 14, 2024. (Christine Olsson/TT News Agency via AP)

Academy of Sciences permanent secretary Hans Ellegren, center, Jakob Svensson, left, and Jan Teorell, of the Nobel assembly announce the Nobel memorial prize in economics winners, Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson and James A Robinson during a press meeting at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm, Sweden, Monday Oct. 14, 2024. (Christine Olsson/TT News Agency via AP)

Academy of Sciences permanent secretary Hans Ellegren, center, Jakob Svensson, left, and Jan Teorell, of the Nobel assembly announce the Nobel memorial prize in economics winners, Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson and James A Robinson during a press meeting at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm, Sweden, Monday Oct. 14, 2024. (Christine Olsson/TT News Agency via AP)

FILE - Daron Acemoglu of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology smiles in this image taken on June 22, 2019 in Kiel, Germany, as he and Simon Johnson and James A. Robinson won the Nobel prize in economics for research into reasons why some countries succeed and others fail. (Frank Molter, dpa via AP, File)

The Nobel memorial prize in economics awarded to Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson and James A Robinson, seen on screen, during a press meeting at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm, Sweden, Monday Oct. 14, 2024. (Christine Olsson/TT News Agency via AP)

Academy of Sciences permanent secretary Hans Ellegren, center, Jakob Svensson, left, and Jan Teorell, of the Nobel assembly announce the Nobel memorial prize in economics winners, Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson and James A Robinson, seen on screen, during a press meeting at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm, Sweden, Monday Oct. 14, 2024. (Christine Olsson/TT News Agency via AP)

FILE - A close-up view of a Nobel Prize medal at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, Md., Tuesday, Dec. 8, 2020. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)

The Nobel economics prize is being announced in Sweden

The Nobel economics prize is being announced in Sweden

FILE - A bust of Alfred Nobel on display following a press conference at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, on Monday, Oct. 3, 2022. (Henrik Montgomery/TT News Agency via AP, File)