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Mark Zuckerberg pledges $3bn toward eradicating disease

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By John Glenday, Reporter

September 22, 2016 | 2 min read

Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan have pledged $3bn toward the eradication of disease as he ramps up his philanthropic initiatives with the express aim of curing all diseases within the lifetime of his 10 month old daughter.

The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative includes an ambitious project to build a $600m research centre and ‘engineering team’ in San Francisco to help scientists and doctors in their efforts to understand and combat disease.

Built in collaboration with Stanford, the University of California, and Berkeley Biohub will be headed up by neurobiologist Cori Bargmann.

In a statement Zuckerberg said: “The science initiative is a long term effort. We plan to invest billions of dollars over decades. But it will take years for these tools to be developed and longer to put them into full use. This is hard and we need to be patient, but it's important.

“This is about the future we want for our daughter and children everywhere. If there's a chance that we can help cure all diseases in our children's lifetime, then we will do our part. Together, we have a real shot at leaving the world a better place for our children than we found it.”

Zuckerberg will finance the mammoth project with $3bn from his own personal shares in Facebook, a sum currently valued at more than $45bn.

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