St. Jude CEO tapped for cancer initiative
Downing will be part of blue-ribbon panel
The chief executive officer of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis has been named to a blue-ribbon panel that will help shape the science and goals for Vice President Joe Biden’s National Cancer Moonshot Initiative, officials announced last week.
The National Cancer Institute announced that Dr. James Downing, St. Jude president and CEO, is one of 28 scientific experts, cancer leaders and patient advocates on a panel that will serve as a working group of the National Cancer Advisory Board.
Earlier this year, President Barack Obama during his State of the Union address tapped Biden to lead a new initiative to eliminate cancer as we know it. The White House has pledged to provide $1 billion to begin the work.
The 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 an NIH news release.
“I look forward to working with the panel and many others involved with the Moonshot to make unprecedented improvements in prevention, diagnosis and treatment of cancer,” Biden said.
Downing, promoted in July 2014 to become the hospital’s CEO, had served as scientific and deputy director of the Memphisbased research hospital and is a recognized leader in pediatric cancer research and genetics. St. Jude is recognized globally as a leader in the treatment and research of childhood cancer and other life-threatening diseases.