Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, have announced a ten-year, $3bn (£2.3bn) medical research fund, designed to "cure, prevent or manage all diseases by the end of the century".
The couple unveiled the ambitious plan at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), during an event for the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, the philanthropic group they launched in December 2015, when they revealed plans to give away 99 per cent of their shares in Facebook.
Chan, a paediatrician, "spoke through tears as she recalled telling parents their child had an incurable disease or could not be revived", USA Today reports.
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One of the initiative's largest investments will be a £462m "Biohub" located at the UCSF.
The centre will "bring together scientists and engineers from Stanford, Berkeley and UCSF – who haven't collaborated in this way before – to develop tools to treat diseases", The Guardian says.
Projects already slated for investigation include the Cell Atlas, "a 'map' that describes the different types of cells that control the body's major organs", reports the BBC, and the Infectious Disease Initiative, which will "try to develop new tests and vaccines to tackle HIV, Ebola, Zika and other new diseases", adds the broadcaster.
The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative announcement follows others from tech firms planning to invest in the health sector.
Microsoft announced this week it would be trying to "solve cancer" using new tech-based research strategies at its lab in Cambridge. IBM and MIT have also revealed a partnership to develop an artificial intelligence approach to help in the care of elderly and disabled patients.
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