Innovation hub

Cure, prevent or manage all diseases by the end of the century: That’s the central goal of the science arm of the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, created by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, MD. Their first scientific investment: the $600 million Biohub, bringing together scientists and engineers from Stanford, the University of California-San Francisco and the University of California-Berkeley to engage in large-scale collaborations, build new biotechnology tools and support researchers.

“The Biohub will be the sinew that ties together these three institutions in the Bay Area like never before,” says Stephen Quake, PhD, Stanford professor of bioengineering and of applied physics, who will co-lead the Biohub with Joseph DeRisi, PhD, professor and chair of biochemistry and biophysics at UCSF. It will be headquartered in San Francisco’s Mission Bay with an outpost at Stanford.

Resident Biohub scientists will work on two overarching projects: the Cell Atlas, a comprehensive catalog of all the biologically significant characteristics of every cell type in the body, and the Infectious Disease Project, which is devoted to tackling microbial diseases, including emerging biothreats and pandemics.