Zuckerberg, wife donate $3 billion to eradicate the disease by the end of the century

The head of Facebook mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan announced the creation of a private Foundation — Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI). The aim of the Fund is the redemption of humanity from dangerous diseases by the end of the 21st century. To achieve this goal, the Fund will be transferred to $3 billion After the announcement of the establishment of the Fund Priscilla Chen explained his task.

"Cure all diseases", she said, does not mean that people will stop hurting. The main goal is to radically reduce the frequency of symptoms of dangerous disease, plus reduce the impact of these diseases on the human body.

Will be funded promising research scientists, those whose success is not guaranteed after years or even decades. But if the project looks realistic, and its main objective coincides with the direction of the Foundation, the author of this work can expect to receive support.

According to the couple Zuckerberg, the secondary objective of the Fund is to provide physicians an environment that have the participants start-UPS in Silicon valley. "This means that we will support projects with a duration of 20 years or even 50 years," said Zuckerberg.

The idea is not new. Long-term projects being implemented by many research organizations and individual scientists, even without significant financial support. But now many professionals who are engaged in projects that do not promise to give in the here and now, will be able to work quietly, not justifying to investors or partners every month in the absence of significant results.

$3 billion for large-scale medical research — not so much, as it may seem. Especially considering the stated duration of most studies. The Fund will be able to Fund only a small fraction of the ongoing work. However, this support is of great importance. The Foundation will be not only in the financing of research, but in creating new relationships between research organizations and universities and maintaining existing ones. To control the operation of the Fund will be neuroscientist Corey Bragman [Cori Bargmann]. Her research led to important discoveries in the field of genetic treatments for cancer. Recently, she has published several papers on his specialty, relevant to the study of the influence of genes on neurons.

Brugmann identifies three main goals of the Foundation CZI:

• Establishing and strengthening linkages between the individual research groups and laboratories of different universities for a long time;
• Focusing on the development of methods that allow to eradicate the disease, not just treating sick people;
• The improvement and expansion of funding for scientific programs.

Program funding for research in the medical field with duration in the age of divided into stages. The first stage is called the Biohub. A goal that you plan to run is a collaboration between Stanford, the University of California at San Francisco and the University of California at Berkeley. The collaboration will be to conduct long-term studies in the science of disease.

The duration of the first phase is 10 years. During this time, the Foundation will allocate $600 million for the completion of phase Biohub is mapping all cells of the human body with their functions. The map will be called "Cellular Atlas". It will not be a paper and a digital document with a volumetric model of the human body. Access to Atlas will be able to biologists, who study the nature of various diseases. The second project from Biohub — search tools that might help to destroy a number of dangerous infectious diseases.

The project during the first ten years will support work of scientists of the three universities on implementing ideas that can lead to new tools to combat diseases. These ideas are risky and ambitious, they do not guarantee results, and their authors quite a bit chances to get the funds.

It is difficult to say what impact it will have on the Fund CZI medical science. The principle of the Fund is new, the unique almost not. And it is unclear whether the money of the head of Facebook and his wife to rid the world of dangerous diseases, or not.

Health donating money and other representatives of it business. For example, the main purpose of the bill and Melinda gates Foundation is to support and improve health care and overcoming hunger in poor countries. The Fund was headed to the programme for the prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis, malaria, projects for the immunization of children in India and Africa, including in the framework of the GAVI Alliance, and other initiatives.

Source: geektimes.ru/post/280744/