The aim of the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative is to “work together to cure, prevent or manage all disease within our children’s lifetime”, Chan said during an event in San Francisco Wednesday, USA Today reported.
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“Our hopes for the future centre on two ideas: advancing human potential and promoting equality”.
Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan have vowed to spend US$3 billion over the next decade to try and cure all diseases.
The couple has committed 99% of their Facebook stock, valued at $45bn, to the initiative which makes charitable donations and for-profit investments.
One of its biggest investments is to be a $600m “Biohub” at UCSF, which will bring together scientists and engineers from Stanford, Berkeley and UCSF – which haven’t collaborated in this way before – to develop tools to treat diseases.
The Facebook founder and his wife, who pledged to give away 99 per cent of their wealth to good causes following the birth of their daughter previous year, said the money would be used to assist scientific work and build new research tools. “It does mean our children and their children will get sick a lot less”, Chan said. Over the next decade, they plan on donating $3 billion in an attempt to eliminate disease from the world by the end of the century. Located near UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital, the research center will be led by biochemist Dr. Joseph DeRisi and Dr. Stephen Quake, a bioengineering and physics professor at Stanford. While Chan is a doctor and as such, can be expected to take a professional interest in the matter, Zuckerberg has also been an equally emphatic supporter.
We set a goal: can we cure all diseases in our children’s lifetime?
The Facebook founder is worth about US$56b, thanks to shares in his own company.
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Zuckerberg and Chan acknowledged it’s an ambitious undertaking. It is their first initiative in science after investing in charter schools and education startups. “It will take years for these tools to be developed and longer to put them into full use – this is hard and we need to be patient, but it’s important”. Cori Bragmann, head of Chan Zuckerberg Science, stressed that the organization will focus upon building “transformational technologies”. “It’s awesome they are taking on another bold challenge”, said Microsoft founder-turned-philanthropist Bill Gates, whom Zuckerberg described him as a “role model and mentor”.
