Obama Puts Joe Biden In Charge Of 'Mission Control' To Fight Cancer

During his final State of the Union address, President Barack Obama vowed to pour resources into finding a cure for cancer -- a cause close to Vice President Joe Biden's heart.

"Last year, Vice President Biden said that with a new moonshot, America can cure cancer," Obama said. "Last month, he worked with this Congress to give scientists at the National Institutes of Health the strongest resources they’ve had in over a decade. Tonight, I’m announcing a new national effort to get it done."

He continued, "And because he’s gone to the mat for all of us, on so many issues over the past forty years, I’m putting Joe in charge of Mission Control. For the loved ones we’ve all lost, for the families we can still save, let’s make America the country that cures cancer once and for all."

Obama then turned around to the vice president.

"What do you say, Joe?" he asked.

Biden, smiling, gave the president a thumbs up.

Biden's son Beau died of brain cancer last year. While announcing his decision to not run for president in 2016, the vice president paid tribute to his son by promising to spend his remaining years in the White House doing all he could to battle cancer.

"I believe we need a moonshot in this country to cure cancer. It's personal. But I know we can do this," Biden said. "If I could be anything, I'd want to be the president that ended cancer, because it is possible."

For more on the State of the Union, read HuffPost's liveblog here.

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