President Obama created a White House task force on cancer and named Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. to head it.

The panel, which will include representatives from at least 13 government agencies, is the first step in what Biden has referred to as “moonshot” to cure the disease that mirrors former President John F. Kennedy’s goal of landing a man on the moon in the 1960s, The New York Times reports.

Biden’s son Beau died last year after a battle with brain cancer. In his final State of the Union address, Obama cited Biden’s “moonshot” comment, saying that “I’m putting Joe in charge of mission control.”

The president has made no specific promises but urged Americans to believe that a cure could be found.

“For the loved ones we’ve all lost, for the family we can still save, let’s make America the country that cures cancer once and for all,” Obama said.