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SALT LAKE CITY — Vice President Joe Biden will travel to Utah next week to meet with experts at the Huntsman Cancer Institute about the national "moonshot" initiative he is leading to eliminate cancer.
"I think the fact that the vice president is coming here illustrates that Utah and the Huntsman Cancer Institute is on the national radar when it comes to innovation and impact in cancer research," said the institute's CEO, Dr. Mary Beckerle.
The White House announced Thursday that Biden will stop in Salt Lake City on Feb. 26, following a two-day trip to Mexico City as head of the U.S. delegation engaged in economic talks with Mexico.
He is scheduled to leave Salt Lake City the evening of Feb. 26 and head to San Francisco for additional discussions on the $1 billion cancer initiative announced by President Barack Obama last month in his State of the State address.
Beckerle said details of the vice president's visit to Utah won't be released by the White House until next week, but he is expected to participate in a roundtable discussion about the institute's cancer research.
"The main goal of the visit, of course, is for the vice president and his team to talk to us about where the great opportunities for cancer research that lie in the future and to brainstorm how we might work together," she said.
The institute will focus on its role as a leader in cancer genetics research, Beckerle said, as well as the challenges of providing care in remote areas. The institute is the region's only designated cancer facility.
Personal connection to cancer
Obama named Biden to lead the initiative, compared to the nation's effort to land an astronaut on the moon, only months after Biden's son Beau died from brain cancer. Biden had called for a "moonshot" push to end cancer last October.
That personal connection to cancer is a powerful motivator to find a cure, Beckerle said. Billionaire Utah industrialist Jon Huntsman Sr., who lost his mother to breast cancer, founded the institute in 1995 after surviving multiple types of cancer.
"Members of the Huntsman family and members of the Biden family share a special bond in that they both lost loved ones to cancer and that they both decided to dedicate their lives to making a difference," she said.
"There is no experience like having cancer or having a loved one with cancer," Beckerle said. "I think it has obviously energized the vice president to make it his priority."
Biden's last visit
Biden was in Utah in 2012 to attend a fundraiser for Obama's re-election. His wife, Jill, met with members of the Utah National Guard and their families at the Utah Air National Guard Base in Salt Lake City.
