Chan Zuckerberg Biohub invests $50 mn to combat diseases

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan's non-profit medical research organisation has announced it will be investing $50 million in its first class of 47 disease investigators in an endeavour to help cure all diseases in our children's lifetime.

The Chan Zuckerberg Biohub (CZ Biohub), which aims to create a "planet without disease", funded 47 scientists, technologists and engineers working at University of Stanford, University of California - San Francisco (UCSF) and University of Berkeley -- which includes nearly 50 per cent women and 15 per cent underrepresented minorities.

"We're investing $50 million in this first class of investigators. This programme will provide five years of funding to some of the most innovative researchers," Zuckerberg was quoted as saying in a Facebook post on Wednesday.

"This first group includes a Stanford data scientist working to analyze massive quantities of genomic data, a doctor from UCSF looking at how malaria spreads, an engineer from Berkeley who is designing tools to better understand human biology, including a miniature foldable microscope, and more," Zuckerberg added.

Each of the CZ Biohub researcher will receive a five-year appointment and up to $1.5 million in funding to conduct life science research in their respective areas of expertise.

"CZ Biohub investigators share our vision of a planet without disease," said Joseph DeRisi, co-president of CZ Biohub and Professor at UC San Francisco.

"CZ Biohub Investigators will challenge traditional thinking in pursuit of radical discoveries that will make even the most stubborn and deadly diseases treatable," DeRisi noted.