First lady Jill Biden walked into St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital’s Marlo Thomas Center with purpose on Friday, March 25.
One of the big reasons behind the first lady’s visit to Memphis was to promote the Biden administration's Cancer Moonshot initiative, which was relaunched in February, with the goal of reducing the cancer death rate by at least 50% in the next 25 years.
As Biden toured the hospital, St. Jude president and CEO Dr. James Downing gave her an overview of the ongoing programs and initiatives at St. Jude that facilitate a better patient and caregiver experience.
Biden made a stop at the Grosschalk Laboratory, where Dr. Charles Roberts, director of St. Jude’s Comprehensive Cancer Center, briefed her about the ongoing research initiatives at St. Jude. Roberts also talked about their work to improving cancer cure rates and about the St. Jude Cloud, the largest repository of pediatric cancer genome data — made freely available to investigators worldwide.
While on campus, Biden met with two of the four pediatric cancer patients evacuated from Ukraine due to the Russian invasion. St. Jude collaborated efforts with the State Department to successfully evacuate these children to Memphis so they could continue with their treatment. Philanthropist Jared Isaacman donated a Starlink system to help with connectivity in the region.
Addressing St. Jude staff and employees toward the end of her visit, Biden said that while she had known about the hospital's work, seeing it first hand was “simply breathtaking.”
“Hearing about so many cutting-edge approaches to this disease, we are reminded that we aren’t helpless,” she said. “In fact, we’re living in a time of incredible possibility.”
Jill Biden visits St. Jude Children's Hospital
Moonshot initiative and St. Jude
While an actual moonshot has its own logistical challenges, Roberts said curing cancer, a constantly evolving disease, is more complex.
Despite taking cure rates for childhood leukemia from 10% to 94% at St. Jude, constant investment is required to continue delivering on this incredibly persistent disease.
The relaunch of the Cancer Moonshot initiative is likely to help with that. There is significant research at St. Jude that is either stimulated, funded, or aligned with the principles of the Cancer Moonshot initiative, Roberts said.
St. Jude’s involvement with the Cancer Moonshot initiative goes back to 2016 when the initiative was first launched. A Blue Ribbon Panel of experts was created to advise then Vice President Joe Biden, and Downing was chosen to be on that panel.
“[Dr. Downing] came back from that in 2016 quite inspired to think about what we can do at St. Jude for cancer prevention,” Roberts said.
A point highlighted by the initial Moonshot initiative was the impact of HPV-associated cancers and the need to prevent them. In the subsequent years, the focus on HPV vaccination and screening increased. St. Jude took this as an opportunity to be a leader for HPV vaccination for children. In March 2021, St. Jude announced an investment of $12 million to reduce HPV-related cancer deaths and boost vaccination rates.
“We launched a program a year ago that has rapidly become one of the largest academic endeavors in HPV cancer prevention,” Roberts said. “This year, [St. Jude] led all 71 NCI cancer centers and seven other groups in an HPV prevention initiative, helping doctors get back on their feet with vaccinations because of the impact of the pandemic.”
The Moonshot initiative also facilitated NCI funding of about $411,000 for St. Jude researcher Hongbo Chi, Ph.D., to study the metabolic reprogramming of Tregs in tumor immunity and over $9 million in NCI funding for Dr. Charles Mulligan’s project on fusion oncoproteins.
Mulligan’s project is focused on the phenomenon of two genes that are supposed to operate separately but fuse together in certain cancers, causing cells to proliferate.
“[Mulligan and team] are going after one of these fusion oncoproteins to see if we can develop new treatments to directly target the fusion,” Roberts said.
While most people know of St. Jude, they don’t entirely understand the depth and breadth of its scientific mission, Roberts said.
“The more that people begin to understand the incredible scientific impact [of St. Jude], the more people can facilitate collaborations for us, put us in touch with people, [and] provide funding for what we do,” he said. “We are all about collaboration and doing it together.”
