Chan-Zuckerberg Biohub is investing $50mn for its first batch of 47 research initiatives

Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan’s non-profit medical research organisation, Chan-Zuckerberg BioHub has announced its first batch of human disease investigators that “will apply the most advanced technologies to support the global fight against infectious diseases.”

The organisation would be doling out a total of $50 million to its first cohort of disease investigators that can study anything from organ printing techniques to studying how cells assemble — all with the Biohub’s goal to “cure, prevent or manage all diseases.”

A different initiative from Chan-Zuckerberg initiative, CZ Biohub is working with the faculty of the University of California, Berkeley; Stanford University and the University of California to conduct life science research that includes four key areas: new detection technologies, new treatments, new ways to prevent infection, and new approaches to rapid response when new threats emerge.

Forty-seven investigators have been chosen out of 700 faculty members who applied, each receiving up to $1.5 million over the span of five years to go toward their research aims.

“The 47 CZ Biohub Investigators we’re introducing today are quite literally inventing the future of life science research. The CZ Biohub is distinguished by our emphasis on technology and engineering, and our researchers are inventing tools to accelerate science for the good of humanity,” said Stephen Quake, co-president of CZ Biohub and professor of bioengineering and applied physics at Stanford.

In addition to the investigator program, the Biohub has a few other large-scale initiatives such as the Infectious Disease Initiative to discover new ways to fight dengue fever and Zika outbreaks, as well as the Cell Atlas, a global project to map the cells in the human body in hopes it unlocks certain causes of disease and potentially leads to new therapies.