--- title: "Zuckerberg Trying to Simulate Human Biology at the Cellular Level" description: "The Chan Zuckerberg Biohub says its goal is to cure all human diseases with the power of artificial intelligence." date: "2026-05-04" modified: "2026-05-04" authors: - name: "Joe Wilkins" job_title: "Correspondent" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/jwilkins" url: "https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/zuckerberg-biohealth-ai" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" - "Developments" - "Ethics" - "Health & Medicine" --- # Zuckerberg Trying to Simulate Human Biology at the Cellular Level ![A close-up of Mark Zuckerberg's face, partially obscured by bright, glowing red and orange circular patterns resembling cells or microscopic organisms.]() *Getty / Futurism* Mark Zuckerberg is following a path paved by fellow billionaires [Bill Gates]() and [Warren Buffet](): laundering his untold billions through a health research prestige project. Called the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub — his wife Priscilla Chan, a pediatrician, is also involved — the foundation's stated long-term mission is to "cure and prevent all disease through AI-powered biology, frontier research, and state-of-the-art technology." True to those enormous goals, the Biohub recently announced a $500 million investment into AI models of human cells, specifically, in order to "accelerate the cure and prevention of all diseases," [*Euronews* reported](). The half a billion dollars are said to go toward a five-year plan to create predictive models of human cells. Once those are built, they will supposedly help medical researchers and biologists understand how cells interact at the level of an entire organism. In theory, this would unlock incredible advancements in bioscience — perhaps even making the deadly diseases plaguing humanity a thing of the past, in the project's outsize wording. In brass tacks, $400 million of the funding will go to Biohub's own AI development, while the rest will go to miscellaneous third-party researchers. "To build artificial intelligence that can accurately represent the full complexity of biology and accelerate scientific research, we need orders of magnitude more data than exists today," Biohub's head of science [Alex Rives said]() in an announcement. "We need new technologies to observe the cell, from the molecular to the tissue level, and in the context of health and disease." The new campaign comes as Zuckerberg's Meta paid the lowest federal income tax rate on record, just a little over 3.5 percent of its total revenue in 2025, according to [the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy](). That came even as the company had its best year ever, bringing in $79 billion in profits across 2025. Given that the federal corporate tax rate is 21 percent, there's a major discrepancy: $13.7 billion, to be exact. That's an astonishing amount of money that could have gone to the type of medical research Zuckerberg is now throwing a small fraction of that at — or, heck, federal health insurance programs or the government's Food and Nutrition Service, which provides nutrition support to millions of low-income Americans. **More on Zuckerberg:** *[If You Thought Mark Zuckerberg Was a Pathetic Little Worm Before, Wait Until You Hear About His Latest Move]()* ## Author At Futurism, I focus on the intersection of technology and power — examining the economics, history, and politics behind today’s dystopian headlines. As a writer, I’m interested in topics ranging from AI’s impact on labor to startups nobody asked for. My prior work includes bylines in Jacobin, Verso, and Blue Labyrinths. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Forbes, The Guardian, MIT Technology Review, Time, The Nation, Mother Jones, The Verge, and Wired. I grew up in Michigan, attending Central Michigan University as well as Ball State University, where I earned a master of music. I now live in Brooklyn with my girlfriend and our cat Ziti. On weekends, you can find me hunched over a cold pint arguing geopolitics with the other transplants. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()