UC San Diego receives $15 million crypto donation to research airborne disease
UC San Diego has received a $15 million cryptocurrency donation to help boost airborne disease research, university officials announced Tuesday.
The gift came from Vitalik Buterin, the world’s youngest crypto-billionaire whose acclaimed tech company Ethereum moves money around the world. The 29-year-old entrepreneur emphasized the importance of public health initiatives that share data freely.
“Over the past few years, it has become clear that we need more open source scientific research to better understand airborne pathogens and pollutants and how they affect us,” Buterin said in a press release.
In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, UCSD plans to use the cash injection to help launch its new Meta-Institute for Airborne Disease in a Changing Climate. The multidisciplinary initiative will focus on aerosolized pathogens and their potential health effects, from allergies and asthma to rapidly spreading diseases.
Questions include: How long do airborne microbes survive? How far can they travel? Are there global hotspots for airborne pathogens?
The institute will be housed at the university’s School of Biological Sciences, led by researchers from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and the School of Physical Sciences. Rommie Amaro, professor of theoretical and computational chemistry and co-director of the Visible Molecular Cell Consortium, will help lead the project.
The institute will investigate the health effects of inhaling aerosolized bacteria, viruses and waterborne pollution, Amaro said. “One of the most exciting aspects of this effort is bringing together top researchers from different disciplines to answer questions that, until now, few have ever thought to ask.”
Atmospheric chemist Kim Prather, the founder of the National Science Foundation-funded Center for Aerosol Impacts on Chemistry of the Environment, will also help lead the new effort.
“Working with health experts, infectious disease physicians, engineers, respiratory experts and researchers, we will develop state-of-the-art measurements and computational tools to study these issues,” Prather said. “A key goal is to develop a better understanding of the production and sources of airborne bioparticles and how long they remain infectious.”
Prather’s work recently linked sewage contamination leaking across the border from Tijuana to airborne bacteria in Imperial Beach.
The $15 million donation is one of the largest cryptocurrency gifts made to an American university, officials said. The gift was exchanged for dollars through a local company that serves non-profit organizations.
