Power couple, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Dr. Priscilla Chan launched the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative last year and now they’ve pledged $3 billion dollars over the next decade to cure, prevent, and manage all diseases by the end of the century. Seems like a big goal to accomplish, but they are confident that this money will make a big difference.
“We spend about 50 times more treating people who are sick than we invest in research so you won’t get sick in the first place,” said Zuckerberg during a press conference.
What Do They Plan To Do?
They have three goals:
- Bring scientists and engineers together
- Build tools and technology to empower the scientific community
- Grow the movement to fund science
Already they have the Cell Atlas, which is a Biohub’s first project whose goal is to understand the complex interactions between cells. Another is the Infectious Disease Project, whose goal is to detect, respond, treat and prevent diseases, such as Ebola, HIV, and Zika.
“We’ll be investing in basic science research with the goal of curing disease”, Chan explained. “As a pediatrician I’ve worked with families at the most difficult moments of their lives” Chan said.
Zuckerberg identified the key health problems that affect the world, which includes: infectious disease, cancer, heart disease, and neurological diseases.
“We have to be patient. This is hard stuff,” said Zuckerberg. “This is about the future that we all want for our children. If there’s even a chance that we can cure all diseases, we have to do it. We have the opportunity to leave the world a much better place than when we found it.”
“We want to dramatically improve every life in Max’s generation and make sure we don’t miss a single soul” Chan said.
