Chan Zuckerberg Biohub to bring together top Chicago scientists to study inflammation, fight disease
CHICAGO (CBS) -- A group founded by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has picked Chicago to build a $250 million biomedical research lab.
The Chan Zuckerberg Biohub will bring together top researchers from the University of Chicago, Northwestern University, and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
The mission for researchers at the new Chicago location will be to create new technology to study human tissue in new ways – with the goal of understanding human health and fighting disease.
The Biohub will specialize in engineering technologies to measure biological processes in human tissues at the molecular level – so as to understand and treat more effectively the inflammatory states that underlie many diseases, according to the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. The Biohub will use the measurement to learn how immune cells can malfunction, causing disease.
The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative notes that inflammation and overactive immune cells play a major role in many diseases – including cancer, heart disease, and Alzheimer's disease – and are also involved in organ failure and severe infectious diseases such as COVID-19.
Professor Shana O. Kelley of Northwestern will lead the Biohub.
"Illinois continues to grow as a thriving innovation hub with world-class research institutions and top-tier talent," Gov. JB Pritzker said in a news release congratulating Chan Zuckerberg. "We're incredibly proud that three Illinois universities will play a critical role in launching the newest endeavor that is a part of the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative creating CZ BioHub Chicago, a biomedical research hub that will take medical research to a new level. Illinois is home to the best and brightest minds and I look forward to seeing their new discoveries help people around the world."
A Chan Zuckerberg Biohub is already in operation in San Francisco.