Mark Zuckerberg and his wife pledged $3 billion over the next decade to efforts to prevent, cure or manage disease, aiming to use the Facebook founder's fortune for innovative research. Zuckerberg and his doctor wife, Priscilla Chan, had their daughter Max late last year. Shortly after, they pledged to donate 99 percent of their Facebook holdings or some $45 billion to "advance human potential and promote equality."
Zuckerberg said their goal is to cure all disease, or at least turn catastrophic illnesses from terminal to manageable. Chan, fighting back tears at times, said that curing all disease within Max's lifetime will not mean children won't ever get sick, but it would happen less often and be less severe. The first investment being made as part of what the Zuckerbergs hoped would become a "collective" effort will be the creation of a bio-hub in San Francisco where researchers, scientists and others will work to build tools to better study and understand diseases.
