The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI) aimed to cure or prevent all diseases by the end of the century. Rapid advances in artificial intelligence (AI) are giving this ambition fresh momentum, with the next steps including the construction of a virtual immune system (VIS) and a “Google map” of the human body.

Founded in 2015 by Priscilla Chan and her husband Mark Zuckerberg, CZI was established to tackle some of society’s most complex challenges, from curing or preventing disease to improving education and supporting local communities across housing and conservation. By the early 2020s, the foundation had stepped back from its broader social agenda to focus entirely on scientific ambitions. Last year, CZI announced that it would increase research spending and double its investment in AI-based research to reach that goal sooner, as reported by Science.

Billions Pledged

Chan, a pediatrician, and Zuckerberg have pledged nearly all their wealth — originally $45 billion and now about $220 billion — to the CZI. Their endowment could surpass those of established biomedical foundations, such as the Novo Nordisk Foundation, with $147.5 billion in assets, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, with $77.2 billion (2024 figures, as of November 5, 2025).

“The older I get, the faster I personally want things to move forward,” Chan said. “It really feels like we have reached a point where a lot can be done to accelerate the pace of scientific discovery.”

The CZI has committed to spending at least $10 billion on basic research over the next 10 years — more than double the $4 billion invested during its first decade. Reinforcing its AI focus, CZI named computer scientist Alex Rives of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, its new scientific director. Rives has developed large language models for biology and has previously worked as an AI researcher on Facebook.

Immune Modelling

One flagship effort benefiting from CZI’s new direction is a large-scale AI initiative to build a VIS that can accelerate the discovery of new therapies. This project was recently presented as a preprint. Much of the additional investment will fund a ten-fold expansion of computing capacity at the Biohub over the next 3 years.

To advance the development of the VIS, researchers in Biohub, New York, are genetically modifying immune cells to study how they transition between functional states and migrate to different sites in the body.

The effort is led by biophysicist Andrea Califano, who serves as the president of immune cell reprogramming and head of the New York Biohub.

Researchers are altering the genetic programs of immune cells to observe how these changes influence cellular behavior, activation status, and tissue localization.

By the end of this year, researchers plan to modify approximately 100 million individual cells and systematically record the resulting molecular and functional changes in these cells. “We want to start creating mechanisms that allow us to study the immune system as a system,” said Califano.

Biohub in Chicago is also contributing large datasets by studying inflammation in laboratory-grown tissue clusters known as organoids. Researchers are developing sensors that sample organoids hourly for protein and metabolic changes that drive psoriasis and inflammatory bowel diseases.

Immunologist Jeffrey Bluestone, head of Sonoma Biotherapeutics, expressed skepticism that CZI’s VIS would prove to be the key to curing and preventing all diseases. “That won’t work,” he said. However, he added that the project could still prove “transformative” for immunology by answering questions such as which cells are affected by influenza virus infection and how vaccines against the pathogen might be improved.

Body Atlas

Among the projects CZI supports is the International Human Cell Atlas Initiative, which is described as a “Google map” of the body that aims to map all human cell types across the lifespan.

A consortium led by Stanford biophysicist Steve Quake at San Francisco Biohub created a separate atlas cataloguing more than one million cells from 28 human organs and mapping their interactions.

Since 2019, CZI has funded a network of patient-led organizations focused on rare diseases. 

In July 2025, CZI announced its first investment in a treatment-related project: $20 million over 3 years to the University of California, San Francisco, and the University of California, Berkeley, to test personalized CRISPR treatments in eight children with severe genetic immune disorders. The aim is to build on the gene therapy success reported earlier this year in the case of “Baby KJ,” an infant with a rare metabolic disease.

CZI also supports the development of a virtual cell — a digital twin of a human cell — in which cellular processes can be simulated in real time, and pathological mechanisms can be studied. Chan estimated that this goal could be achieved within approximately 5 years.

Chan said that leading the CZI toward its ambitious objectives feels urgent. “People need hope. I want to believe that the impossible is possible.”

This story was translated from Medscape’s German edition.