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Facebook founder invests US$3 billion towards cure for all diseases

By Liu Hongzuo - on 22 Sep 2016, 11:41am

Facebook founder invests US$3 billion towards cure for all diseases

Bill Gates visits Mack Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan to lend support for their new direction within the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative.

Earlier today, Mark Zuckerberg held a press conference to announce his new goal within the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. The founder of Facebook will pump US$3 billion into his philanthropic arm to manage, prevent, and cure all diseases by the end of this century, according to his Facebook post.

The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative was jointly founded last year by Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan. Back then, it sought to promote human potential and equality for the next generation. This time round, the Facebook founder had a much more ambitious perspective on contributing to the world at large.

According to Zuckerberg himself, the couple plans to approach this challenge with a three-pronged approach. The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative intends to gather scientists and engineers together, and build the tools to empower the scientific community. Finally, they will grow this movement to fund the science behind cures. This project will be led by Dr. Cori Bargmann, a neuroscientist and geneticist now as the Initiative’s President of Science.

From his Note on his Facebook page:

“After years of learning about these problems, talking to top scientists and experts, reading everything we could get our hands on, and getting into the math of how science is funded, we are optimistic that it is possible to cure, prevent or manage all disease in our children's lifetime.

If we can bring scientists and engineers together to build the right tools, then we can accelerate breakthroughs on the major diseases, and we can continue until there are no more left.”

According to Engadget, the first investment would be the Biohub - a facility to bring researchers and engineers from University of California San Francisco, Stanford, and UC Berkley. The facility serves as a central point across different disciplines, be it engineers, computer scientists, biologists, chemists, etc., while they use the location to develop new tools and treat diseases.

The announcement was accompanied by Bill Gate’s appearance, who also lends his support to the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative.

Source: Facebook

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