Mark Zuckerberg and his wife have pledged more than $3bn towards an ambitious plan to rid the world of disease.

The Facebook founder and his wife, paediatrician Priscilla Chan, said the goal was to "cure, prevent or manage all disease within our children's lifetime".

Investment will go towards research into cancer and infectious disease as well as heart and neurological disease, the couple said.

The plans were revealed during an event in San Francisco for their philanthropic group, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, on Wednesday.

Dr Chan said they had launched the initiative following the birth of daughter Max last year, with the goal of dramatically improving the lives of all other children in her generation.


Image: Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan pictured before the birth of daughter Max

She recalled experiences of telling parents their child had an incurable disease or could not be revived, and said she hoped to spare parents the pain she had seen while delivering difficult news in her role as a pediatrician.

She explained: "In those moments and in many others we're at the limit of what we understand about the human body and disease, the science behind medicine, the limit of our ability to alleviate suffering. We want to push back that boundary."

Her role as a doctor, she said, had made her determined to work with scientists to help save lives.

The Zuckerberg plan to fight the world's diseases

Zuckerberg said the funding would bring scientists and engineers together, build tools and technology needed to help fight disease and also grow the movement to fund science.

The tech billionaire said 50 times more is spent on treating people who are ill than finding cures.

"We can do better than that," he said.

The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative mission statement states: "We want every child to grow up in a better world.

Image: Microsoft's Bill Gates - the world's richest man - and wife Melinda set up a foundation to eradicate malaria. Image: Elton John gave millions to charity last year, mainly to his AIDS foundations in the UK and US Image: Hungarian-born George Soros, known as the Man Who Broke The Bank Of England, has given more than $11bn - £8.4bn - away Image: Harry Potter author JK Rowling's particular interests focus on alleviating the hardship of single parents Image: U2 lead singer Bono is widely known for his activism and philanthropy, particularly for Africa Image: The Clinton Foundation, set up by former US president Bill Clinton, is best known for its health initiatives Image: Warren Buffett has donated billions to charities /

"Our hopes for the future centre on two ideas: advancing human potential and promoting equality.

"We'll focus first on personalised learning, curing disease, connecting people and building strong communities.

"We will make long-term investments over 25, 50 or even 100 years because our greatest challenges require time to solve."

The couple announced in December 2015 that they planned to give away 99% of their Facebook shares to fund good causes.

Dr Jeremy Farrar, of global charitable foundation the Wellcome Trust, said later: "I'd like to congratulate Mark and Priscilla for starting such an ambitious venture to understand health and disease, which resonates strongly with Wellcome's mission.

"Science and research are critical to the challenge of better health, and need the support and stimulus that philanthropic initiatives like this bring.

"Wellcome aims to spend £5bn over the next five years on our mission of improving health by helping great ideas to thrive, and welcome the fresh impetus to science and research that the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative will bring."

