Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan to pledge $3 billion to help fight disease

Aside from being the CEO of the biggest social media site, Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan are working on a bigger cause: helping cure all diseases. Through the couple’s Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, they plan to invest over US$3 billion over the next decade with an aim of curing all diseases by the end of the century. The three goals the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative has include bringing scientists and engineers together, develop new tools and tech, as well as boost the movement to fund science needed to treat diseases. They plan to work with the top scientists from around the world to work on this

Chan, a pediatrician by profession, talked about this plan at an event hosted at the University of California, San Francisco, Mission Bay campus, which houses the school’s state-of-the-art hospital. Present at the event were well-known scientists, investors, and politicians like Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates (who is a partner of the Initiative), former US Secretary Janel Napolitano, and investor Ron Conway. The first investment by the initiative will be $600 million to fund the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub, an independent research center at Mission Bay where engineers, biologists, computer scientists, and the like can collaborate.

Source: CNET

Facebook's Zuckerberg and wife Priscilla Chan to donate $45 billion to charity

Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan have made a number of big announcements. The couple has formed Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, an organization with the mission to advance human potential and promote equality.

The Initiative's areas of focus will include personalized learning, curing disease, connecting people and building strong communities. The bigger announcement was that Priscilla and Mark are contributing 99% of their Facebook shares -- currently worth about $45 billion as of today -- during their lives to advance the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative mission. Last but not the least, the couple also announced the birth of their daughter, Max Chan Zuckerberg, who was born Thanksgiving Week and is the inspiration for their charity.