The Chan Zuckerberg Biohub, a $250 million biomedical lab funded by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan, will soon open in Chicago.
The Biohub, a collaboration between the University of Chicago, Northwestern University, and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, is leasing 25,698 square feet of space at the Fulton Labs building located at 1330 W. Fulton St., Chicago Business reports.
Chan Zuckerberg Biohub Arrives in Chicago
The same report tells us that the laboratory will accommodate 30 to 50 researchers and personnel who will concentrate on risky monumental efforts in biology, such as creating disease treatments by mapping the human body at the cellular level.
The Chicago lab was picked above 58 other groups across the country and is intended to recruit researchers ready to take on ambitious projects in the biosciences.
Priscilla Chan says in a blog post that this new institute is part of the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub Network (CZ Biohub Network).
She explains that it is based on a model for scientific and technological innovation developed at the first Biohub in San Francisco, California.
According to Chan, the key idea behind the Biohub Network is that some scientific challenges "simply cannot be solved in a traditional research environment."
What This Means for the Local Community
Chicago Business highlights that this news provides a huge boost to Chicago's reputation as a national hub for life sciences, establishing Fulton Market as the top location for life sciences-related companies. When Google arrived in the place in 2015, the area had already established itself as a leading site for tech companies.
More About the Initiative
It was in early March when the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI) opened the biomedical research hub in Chicago. This project looks to address critical scientific challenges over the coming decade or so.
The CZ Biohub Chicago will focus on engineering technologies that will give precise, molecular-level assessments of biological processes within human tissues. The ultimate goal is understanding and managing the inflammatory states underlying many illnesses.
The CZ Biohub Chicago will also capture biological signals with an unprecedented resolution by embedding sensors and probes within human skin tissue.
According to Mark Zuckerberg, their San Francisco Biohub has demonstrated that cross-disciplinary science leads to breakthroughs. The new integrated research approach will help to achieve the objective of curing, preventing, or managing all diseases by the end of the century.
CZ Biohub Chicago intends to create new methods to better evaluate tissues and obtain insights into inflammation, making inflammation-related diseases more manageable and preventable.
In Other News
Michigan Medicine and Zipline have recently partnered to develop an autonomous electric drone capable of delivering prescription medications.
The drone service would be free, transporting medicines directly to patients' doorsteps throughout Washtenaw County. The idea is for these drones to increase access to specialty pharmacy drugs for people suffering from complex and rare conditions. Read more about the news here.
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