Biden names biotech pro as director of new health research agency in a cancer moonshot speech

President Biden on Monday will appoint Dr. Renee Wegrzyn, an experienced biotechnology professional, to lead an agency created in March to “push the limits” of medical health research and innovation.

Mr. Biden will detail Dr. Wegrzyn’s role as the inaugural director of the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health, or ARPA-H, in a speech about his cancer moonshot initiative from Boston. The agency’s portfolio and budget will be focused in part on building programs and technologies that detect, prevent and treat diseases like cancer.

“Cancer not only afflicts Democrats and Republicans, but all Americans,” the White House said in a fact sheet before the speech. “When we come together as a nation around ideas that unite us — like fighting cancer — we can show the world that anything is possible.”