“Can we cure all diseases in our children’s lifetime?” Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, believe we can. They’ve just announced that the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative’s new goal is to cure all diseases in the next century—and they’re investing $3 billion over the next 10 years to make that happen.
Mashable reports that during a visit to the University of California San Francisco, the couple announced that they would like to “cure, prevent, and manage” all diseases by the end of the century. Chan clarified that they don’t think they can eliminate every disease in this time, but by investing in research they can hopefully learn to manage many of them.
There are three main steps to the program. The first is to bring scientists and engineers together, the second is to create new tools and technology, and the third is fund more research. This program will be led by neurobiologist Cori Bargmann, according to The Guardian. While the idea may sound a bit far-fetched, it’s important to think about how much can change in 100 years (just five years ago only a third of Americans had smartphones!). While their initial investment of $3 million seems low for such a lofty goal, it’s what makes the last step so great—They hope that by working with an impressive team of scientists that make progress toward the goal, others around the world will be inspired to invest in the program and help it grow.
Zuckerberg’ plan in three steps pic.twitter.com/ZTY9NiD37O
— Karissa Bell (@karissabe) September 21, 2016
The Chan Zuckerberg initiative began in 2015, when they announced that 99 percent of their Facebook stock would go towards “advancing human potential and promoting equality.” 99 percent means around $45 billion, and they have already started working on programs in India and Africa, Mashable reports.