A few big millionaires and billionaires are stepping forward to fund an ongoing project known as the Breakthrough Prize which aims to improve science to extend human life and cure diseases.

The big donors include Mark Zuckerberg and wife Priscilla Chan, Sergey Brin and wife Anne Wojcicki, and Yuri Milner.

$33 million has been awarded to the first ever Breakthrough Prize winners in 2013. Each year after, $15 million will be awarded to the next winners of the prize.

The first year's prize winners and their area of progression are:

  • Cornelia I. Bargmann - Genetics of neural circuits
  • David Botstein - Mendelian disease
  • Lewis C. Cantley - Cancer
  • Hans Clevers - Stem cells and cancer
  • Napoleone Ferrara - Cancer
  • Titia de Lange - Cancer and eye diseases
  • Eric S - Identifying disease genes in the human genome
  • Charles L. Sawyers -Targeted cancer therapy
  • Bert Vogelstein - Cancer genomics and tumor suppressing genes
  • Robert A. Weinberg - Characterization of human cancer genes
  • Shinya Yamanaka - Pluripotent stem cells

It's great that money is being used to help the masses and to defeat disease and suffering.  Another big partner in this struggle is St. Jude Children's Research Hospital and we will be doing a radiothon to raise money for the hospital on March 7th and 8th. You can even become a Partner in Hope right now!

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