Mark Zuckerberg, Priscilla Chan pledge $3 billion to 'cure, prevent, and manage' all disease
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, pediatrician Priscilla Chan, have a goal: To bring together scientists and engineers to cure disease, including such leading causes of death such as cancer and heart disease, within 10 years.
During an event on Wednesday for their philanthropic organization, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, the pair announced they are committing $3 billion over the next decade to "work together to cure, prevent, or manage all disease within our children's lifetime." They are funding a $600 million research center in San Francisco, in partnership with three universities, that will focus on two research projects: Cell Atlas, a map of the cells that control major organs, and the Infectious Disease Initiative, which will look for new drugs, tests, and vaccines that could fight HIV, Ebola, and Zika.
Chan said one of the hardest things she's had to do as a pediatrician is tell parents that their child has an incurable disease, and while the new initiative doesn't mean "no one will ever get sick," it does mean "our children and their children should get sick a lot less. And that we should be able to detect and treat or at least manage it as an ongoing condition." After the birth of their daughter, Max, last year, the couple announced they would give away 99 percent of their Facebook shares over their lifetime. They have already made investments in an Indian education startup called Byju and Andela, an African coding startup.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Catherine Garcia is night editor for TheWeek.com. Her writing and reporting has appeared in Entertainment Weekly and EW.com, The New York Times, The Book of Jezebel, and other publications. A Southern California native, Catherine is a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
-
Puffed rice and yoga: inside the collapsed tunnel where Indian workers await rescue
Speed Read Workers trapped in collapsed tunnel are suffering from dysentery and anxiety over their rescue
By Sorcha Bradley, The Week UK Published
-
More than 2,000 dead following massive earthquake in Morocco
Speed Read
By Justin Klawans Published
-
Mexico's next president will almost certainly be its 1st female president
Speed Read
By Peter Weber Published
-
North Korea's Kim to visit Putin in eastern Russia to discuss arms sales for Ukraine war, U.S. says
Speed Read
By Peter Weber Published
-
Gabon's military leader sworn in following coup in latest African uprising
Speed Read
By Justin Klawans Published
-
Nobody seems surprised Wagner's Prigozhin died under suspicious circumstances
Speed Read
By Peter Weber Published
-
Western mountain climbers allegedly left Pakistani porter to die on K2
Speed Read
By Justin Klawans Published
-
'Circular saw blades' divide controversial Rio Grande buoys installed by Texas governor
Speed Read
By Peter Weber Published