Chan Zuckerberg Biohub Opens Fourth Rare As One Funding Round, Expands AI-Powered Drug Repurposing Partnership with Every Cure
核心洞察
The Chan Zuckerberg Biohub (搜索) will open a fourth round of Rare As One Network grants this fall, targeting rare pulmonary diseases, immune diseases, and rare cancers.
The initiative has committed more than $150 million across four funding cycles, engaging over 320,000 patients and 26,000 researchers to date.
An expanded partnership with Every Cure (搜索) will leverage AI to identify drug repurposing opportunities, translating platform findings into patient-centered research programs.
The Chan Zuckerberg Biohub (搜索) announced Thursday that it will open a fourth round of funding through its Rare As One Network this fall, deepening its commitment to accelerating treatments for conditions that have historically received limited attention from traditional research and pharmaceutical investment. The application window is expected to open in October, with awards targeted toward patient-led groups focused primarily on rare pulmonary and immune diseases, as well as rare cancers.
The Rare As One program has committed more than $150 million to rare disease initiatives through its four funding cycles, marking what the organization describes as a transformational relationship with the rare disease advocacy community.
"When I was a pediatric resident, I would sit across from families who had done everything right — researched, advocated, fought for answers — and I had to tell them that medicine just didn't know yet. Those families never left me," Priscilla Chan said in a statement. "We built Rare As One because we believe patients aren't bystanders to scientific progress — they are among its most powerful drivers."
Patient-Led Organizations Driving Research
To date, Biohub reports that the organizations it supports have engaged more than 320,000 patients and community members, along with 26,000 researchers. The impact extends beyond engagement: two-thirds of the groups that received funding from Rare As One have built research assets and tools designed to accelerate understanding of rare diseases, and more than half have contributed to the development and launch of clinical trials.
"In the seven years since we launched, 94 patient-led organizations have built research networks, launched clinical trials, and in some cases are now sponsoring those trials themselves," Chan said. "What once felt impossible is happening."
Sunitha Malepati, vice president of the CACNA1A Foundation and a CNBC Cures Advisory Board member, described how the program transformed her organization's capabilities. "When we joined the network, we were a young organization with a bold vision but limited infrastructure. Through the program's funding, training, and peer community, we were able to build the organizational capacity needed to actively driving research," she said. The funding helped establish research partnerships and organize patient and scientific communities around CACNA1A-related disorders (搜索), a group of rare, lifelong neurological and genetic conditions.
AI-Powered Drug Repurposing Collaboration
The announcement also expands Biohub's partnership with Every Cure (搜索), the nonprofit founded by Dr. David Fajgenbaum that uses artificial intelligence to identify opportunities to repurpose existing medicines for diseases with few or no treatment options. Biohub already serves as a foundational philanthropic backer of Every Cure. Through the new collaboration, select patient organizations will partner with Every Cure to advance promising drug repurposing opportunities identified from its AI-driven platform, with the goal of translating those findings into patient-centered research programs.
"I'm thrilled about our expanded partnership — from an initial grant to get started with building our AI platform in 2023, to where we are now," Fajgenbaum said. "There's no better organization or team to work with on this shared mission."
The collaboration is part of a broader push from Chan and Mark Zuckerberg to further incorporate AI in their ambitious quest to eliminate disease. Biohub recently launched its Virtual Biology Initiative, a $500 million effort to build a predictive model of the cell, and introduced its own AI model designed to accelerate drug discovery.
Reshaping the Biomedical Research Paradigm
Tania Simoncelli, Biohub vice president of translational science, emphasized the broader significance of the patient-led model. "We founded the Rare As One Project because we saw that patients were playing a critical role in scientific discovery," Simoncelli said in a blog post. "What we have witnessed across three cycles is something even more powerful than we imagined. Patients, researchers, and clinicians working together aren't just accelerating timelines: they are reshaping the biomedical research paradigm."
The initiative is designed to strengthen patient communities by providing financial support and resources that help them build research networks, collect and share data, establish disease registries, connect with academic researchers, and support clinical studies. The broader vision is to use philanthropy, cutting-edge biomedical science, and technologies such as artificial intelligence to shorten the time between scientific discovery and the development of effective treatments.
"And now, with AI accelerating what's scientifically possible, every day we are lifting the ceiling of what's possible for families," Chan added.