PHILADELPHIA— Chi Van Dang, MD, PhD, director of the Abramson Cancer Center of the University of Pennsylvania, has been named to the Blue Ribbon Panel that will help inform the scientific direction at the National Cancer Institute of Vice President Joe Biden’s National Cancer Moonshot Initiative. The Vice President launched the effort in January during a visit to meet with cancer researchers and tour laboratories at the Abramson Cancer Center.
The panel — made up of clinical leaders, patient advocates, members of the pharmaceutical industry and experts in immunology, cancer prevention, bioinformatics, and genomics, among others — will serve as a working group of the presidentially appointed National Cancer Advisory Board (NCAB) and will provide scientific guidance from thought leaders in the cancer community.
“I’m honored to be joining this diverse group of cancer researchers and physicians, advocates, and industry leaders, all of whom represent communities that are essential players working to better prevent and fight the many forms of the disease,” Dang said. “I look forward to working with this talented panel to inform scientific direction of the Vice President’s Moonshot as we work toward a cure for the millions who are touched by cancer each year.”
The effort aims to make greater headway in the development of cancer vaccines, highly sensitive approaches to early detection, advances in immunotherapy and combination therapies, single-cell genomic profiling of cancer cells and cells in the tumor microenvironment, enhanced data sharing, and new approaches to the treatment of pediatric cancers. The cancer community, including members of the general public, will be provided a forum to post comments and insights to help inform the panel’s deliberations.
Findings of the panel will be reported to the NCAB, which in turn will make its recommendations to NCI, which will contribute to the overall scientific approach of the initiative.
“This Blue Ribbon Panel will ensure that, as the National Institutes of Health allocates new resources through the Moonshot, decisions will be grounded in the best science,” Biden said in a news release. “I look forward to working with this panel and many others involved with the Moonshot to make unprecedented improvements in prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of cancer.
On January 15, the Vice President visited Penn's Abramson Cancer Center, days after President Obama announced the cancer moonshot initiative during his State of the Union. He toured a research hub at Penn Medicine that will serve as the epicenter of its pioneering personalized T cell therapy program.
After, Biden led a roundtable discussion with Dang and Penn experts in immunotherapy, cancer prevention, surgery, genomics, and more. Biden was also joined by University of Pennsylvania President Amy Gutmann and National Institutes of Health Director Francis S. Collins, MD, PhD.
“Thanks to advances in science, we are now in a historically unique position to make profound improvements in the way we treat, detect, and prevent cancer,” Collins said in a news release. “The Vice President’s deep personal commitment to this noble cause will make a tremendous difference in our ability to lift the terrible burden of cancer. His call to action, including the establishment of this panel, comes at just the right time for all the right reasons.”
To learn more about the Blue Ribbon Panel, read the full National Cancer Institute news release.
Penn Medicine is one of the world’s leading academic medical centers, dedicated to the related missions of medical education, biomedical research, excellence in patient care, and community service. The organization consists of the University of Pennsylvania Health System and Penn’s Raymond and Ruth Perelman School of Medicine, founded in 1765 as the nation’s first medical school.
The Perelman School of Medicine is consistently among the nation's top recipients of funding from the National Institutes of Health, with $550 million awarded in the 2022 fiscal year. Home to a proud history of “firsts” in medicine, Penn Medicine teams have pioneered discoveries and innovations that have shaped modern medicine, including recent breakthroughs such as CAR T cell therapy for cancer and the mRNA technology used in COVID-19 vaccines.
The University of Pennsylvania Health System’s patient care facilities stretch from the Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania to the New Jersey shore. These include the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Penn Presbyterian Medical Center, Chester County Hospital, Lancaster General Health, Penn Medicine Princeton Health, and Pennsylvania Hospital—the nation’s first hospital, founded in 1751. Additional facilities and enterprises include Good Shepherd Penn Partners, Penn Medicine at Home, Lancaster Behavioral Health Hospital, and Princeton House Behavioral Health, among others.
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