The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative is opening a research center in New York City dedicated to developing new techniques for early disease detection and treatment. CZ Biohub NY, as it’s being called, will work with Columbia, Rockefeller and Yale universities to better learn how immune cells detect and attack specific diseases, and eventually use this insight to engineer cells that could do the job more precisely.
The charitable organization headed by Priscilla Chan and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has committed $250 million to the effort, according to STAT, alongside investments of $10 million each from the State of New York and New York City. In a blog post announcing CZ Biohub NY, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative said it will start by focusing on cancers and other diseases that often go undetected until they’ve advanced to the point of being difficult or impossible to treat. That includes “ovarian and pancreatic cancers; neurodegenerative diseases, including Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s; a