Chan Zuckerberg Initiative Launches Biohub in New York for Early Disease Prevention, Detection, and Treatment

What You Should Know: 

– The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI) announced the launch of a new biomedical research hub in New York City that will catalyze collaboration between leading scientific and technology institutions in the area, with the goal of solving grand scientific challenges on 10- to 15-year time horizons. 

– The CZ Biohub NY is the fourth research institute in the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub Network, a groundbreaking collaborative model for scientific research. The Network includes the first CZ Biohub, in San Francisco, a second in Chicago, and the Chan Zuckerberg Institute for Advanced Biological Imaging in Redwood City, California. 

CZ Biohub NY Focused on Early Disease Detection, Prevention, Treatment

The Chan Zuckerberg Biohub New York (CZ Biohub NY) brings together Columbia University, The Rockefeller University, and Yale University to create new technologies to characterize and bioengineer immune cells — with the ultimate goal of creating disease-specific “cellular endoscopes” that can detect early stages of disease in cells, monitor cell changes, and resolve diseases before they become untreatable.  In addition to the funding from CZI, the State of New York and New York City are also contributing $10 million each to the CZ Biohub NY.

The CZ Biohub NY will first focus on learning more about the molecular memory and states of immune cells when they sense signals secreted by diseased cells and organs. This will help predict early signs of disease that are tissue-specific. Building on this, researchers will work to understand the mechanisms of immune cell trafficking to further direct cells to desired organs on-demand and to sense novel disease signals they are not yet built to detect. This will help CZ Biohub NY to bioengineer immune cells that can travel to specific organs, sense any potential abnormalities, and then record information in their molecular state for easy detection from a simple blood draw — or by using non-invasive engineered devices — for further interpretation by scientists and eventually physicians.

CZ Biohub NY will initially apply these novel, technology-driven approaches to hard-to-detect cancers such as ovarian and pancreatic cancers; neurodegenerative diseases, including Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s; as well as aging and autoimmunity. The next step is further training immune cells to make targeted repairs, such as promoting inflammation at a tumor site to activate a robust immune response.  

“The CZ Biohub Network is driving a new model of long-term, strategic collaborative science that will enable its scientists to address scientific challenges. These will range from bioengineering immune cells to take residence in specific organs, reporting back on tissue- and organ-specific health status, and eventually delivering therapeutic molecules to stop diseases at their earliest stages,” said CZ Biohub New York President Andrea Califano, who recently received the 26th Alfred G. Knudson Award in Cancer Genetics by the National Cancer Institute. “Joining the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub Network presents a unique opportunity and long-term runway to assemble a remarkable ‘dream team’ of scientists and technologists to pursue their most ambitious goals aimed at creating a healthier future for all of us. When we first thought of this idea, it sounded like science fiction. But then we realized that piece by piece, the scientists at this remarkable trio of research institutions had all the individual components that could make this starshot work. The CZ Biohub Network provides a unique opportunity and the means to realize these scientific aims over the next 10-15 years.”

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