Zuckerberg, Chan to spend $3 billion on curing disease

Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg (left) and his wife Dr.Priscilla Chan (right) give their closing remarks at an announcement for the new Chan-Zuckerberg initiative to fund disease-prevention research, at the Rutter center at UCSF, in San Francisco, California, on Wednesday, Sept. 21, 2016. less Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg (left) and his wife Dr.Priscilla Chan (right) give their closing remarks at an announcement for the new Chan-Zuckerberg initiative to fund disease-prevention research, ... more Photo: Gabrielle Lurie, The Chronicle Photo: Gabrielle Lurie, The Chronicle Image 1 of / 42 Caption Close Zuckerberg, Chan to spend $3 billion on curing disease 1 / 42 Back to Gallery

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Dr. Priscilla Chan, on Wednesday announced an ambitious plan to spend $3 billion over the next 10 years to help cure or better treat disease.

“Can we cure, prevent or manage all diseases by the end of this century? That doesn’t mean that no one will get sick, but it should mean that people will get sick less,” Zuckerberg told a crowd gathered at the William J. Rutter Center on UCSF’s Mission Bay campus.

The new initiative, Chan Zuckerberg Science, is designed to help bring scientists and engineers together, build new tools and technologies and grow a movement to help fund more science, he said.

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This is the first major science project developed by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, a charitable effort the couple set up after the birth of their daughter last year to focus on promoting equality in areas such as health, education, scientific research and energy. It is also the single largest charitable pledge in the fields of health and science, according to the Chronicle of Philanthropy, which tracks such gifts.

The initial investment in science is for the Biohub, a $600 million collaboration among UCSF, UC Berkeley and Stanford University. The Biohub will serve as an independent research center that will link experts across disciplines and include engineers, computer scientists, biologists and chemists.

In an often emotional presentation, Chan, a pediatrician who graduated from the UCSF School of Medicine, talked about why the work was important to her.

“As a pediatrician, I have worked with families at the most difficult moments of their lives, from making a devastating diagnosis of leukemia to sharing with a family that we are unable to resuscitate their child,” said Chan, whose daughter, Max, is 10 months old.

Chan said she hopes for a better future for children. “We set a goal: Can we all work together to cure or better manage disease for all children in our lifetime?” she said.

While the goal is clearly a challenge, the couple appears committed. In December, just after the birth of their daughter, they announced they intended to give away 99 percent of their shares in Facebook in their lifetimes. Unusually, they set up a limited liability company, or LLC, rather than a nonprofit charitable trust or foundation because it allows for more flexibility in how to distribute their wealth.

The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative has, until Wednesday, invested in education, including a coding project in Africa called Andela, and Byju, an Indian education startup.

In a surprise appearance at the end of Wednesday’s presentation, Zuckerberg introduced Microsoft founder Bill Gates, who Zuckerberg said has been an inspiration for his philanthropic efforts.

Gates, who through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has become one of the world’s most prolific philanthropists, returned the praise, expressing how he’s been impressed by the couple’s love for science and commitment to “where it can take us.”

“Their vision, their generosity is really inspiring a whole new generation of philanthropists who will do amazing things,” Gates told the audience.

Chan and Zuckerberg have already started investing in health. Last year, they donated $75 million to San Francisco General Hospital, where Chan trained as a pediatric resident. The money was used to fund critical equipment and technology for the new public hospital, which opened in May under its new name, the Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center.

As part of Wednesday’s announcement, the couple named Cori Bargmann, a neurobiologist from New York’s Rockefeller University, as president of Chan Zuckerberg Science. They also named Stanford University scientist Stephen Quake and UCSF biochemist Joe DeRisi as heads of the Biohub.

The Biohub will be located next to UCSF’s Mission Bay campus, with a satellite site at Stanford.

The Biohub will immediately start two projects. One, the Cell Atlas, will be a map made available to researchers around the world that reveals the many different types of cells that control the body’s major organs. The Infectious Disease Initiative is designed to promote research for new ways of creating treatments.

DeRisi said the infectious disease effort will be able to react quickly to a developing health problem. “There won’t be any long debates about whether we should fund something if it’s a threat,” he said.

Bargmann said Chan Zuckerberg Science will find great scientists, allow them to work together and give them a long lead time to find solutions.

“This will work,” she said confidently.

Victoria Colliver is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: vcolliver@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @vcolliver

What is the initiative?

Mark Zuckerberg and Dr. Priscilla Chan are putting $3 billion over the next decade into Chan Zuckerberg Science. It’s part of their larger Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, a limited liability company that focuses on promoting equality in areas such as health, education, scientific research and energy.

What will the initiative do?

The goal is to invest in basic science research to help advance disease prevention and treatment. The first project is the Biohub, a collaboration among UC Berkeley, UCSF and Stanford created with a $600 million commitment from the couple.

What will the Biohub do?

It will immediately launch two research projects to be conducted over the next five years: the Cell Atlas and the Infectious Disease Initiative. The Cell Atlas will be a map that reveals the many different types of cells that control the body’s major organs. The Infectious Disease Initiative will promote research for new ways of creating treatments that could aid the fight against immediate threats like HIV, Ebola and Zika.

Sources: Chan Zuckerberg Initiative; UCSF; UC Berkeley; Stanford University

Better to give

At $3 billion, the Chan Zuckerberg Science Initiative is far and away the largest single pledge from individuals in the fields of health and scientific research, and one of only a handful of publicly disclosed gifts exceeding $100 million.

Donor Recipient Year Amount Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg Chan Zuckerberg Science Initiative 2016 $3 billion Ted Stanley Broad Institute 2014 $650 million T. Denny Sanford Sioux Valley Hospitals and Health System 2007 $400 million Paul Allen Allen Institute for Brain Science 2012 $300 million Sean Parker Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy 2016 $250 million Sanford ‘Sandy’ and Joan Weill UCSF 2016 $185 million Charles F. Feeney Global Brain Health Initiative 2015 $177 million David Koch Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center 2015 $150 million T. Denny Sanford Sanford Health 2014 $125 million Ernest Rady Rady Children’s Hospital Foundation 2014 $120 million