- Everything about our country
has always been about possibilities.
From someone making an
arduous journey here
to make it to a country,
they don't speak the language
and have no idea how
they're gonna be welcomed,
why do they come?
It's about, just
generically, possibilities.
And what's changed in my career of late
is the sense that there
are significant limitations
on our hopes and aspirations.
And it used to be that the one thing
everyone sorta believed in was that
if we just got the best minds,
we just got the best people,
figuratively speaking, in the room,
there wasn't anything we couldn't do.
And I am so convinced you
all have brought this process
so far along that I'm
convinced, as we make progress
in the near term, meaning
the next five years or so,
in this area, it's gonna
reawaken that sense in America
beyond the health
sciences, across the board,
in the enormous possibilities
that exist in this country.
- Mr. Vice President, Dr. Biden,
it's a real honor to be here.
I'm here not as a cancer researcher,
but I'm a fundamental biologist.
And I feel I really represent
many of my colleagues here
who are doing basic research in biology
that often leads us in
unexpected directions.
And in my own case,
together with my colleagues,
we came across a finding
in research we were doing
on bacterial immune systems
that led to a technology
for genome editing, which
means being able to make
very precise targeted
changes to the DNA in cells,
so precise that we can
change a single letter
in the DNA code in a
human cell, for example.
Now, why is this relevant to cancer?
And I think there's sort of two points
that I wanted to make.
One is that I think it's
going to be extremely valuable
for research, understanding,
taking the data
that Jeff and many others are generating
and being able to understand
what changes in cells
are the real drivers of cancer.
And furthermore, what are
the appropriate targets
for therapeutics?
So, I think that's one use
that this'll be incredibly valuable for.
But I'm also very optimistic
about this technology
being important as a
therapy in its own right,
especially coupled with immunotherapy,
being able to use it in the immune system,
to help program the immune
system to target cancer cells.
We've already seen a really
exciting example of this
in the U.K. with a young
child who had leukemia
and was treated with immune
cells from another donor
that had been edited using genome editing.
So, I think this is
the tip of the iceberg.
And I just would love to
see the Cancer Moonshot
continue to support fundamental research
that leads to breakthroughs
that are going to be critical
to address this mission.
- Well, you sold me on that in Davos.
No, I really mean it.
And my staff will tell
you there is a consensus
among the folks about
focusing on basic research
and how important that is in this effort.
With your help, I may help facilitate
the things that you are
on the verge of doing.
Doctor, thank you so much
for letting me be here.
(applause)
