According to the March 7 announcement from the University of California San Diego (UCSD), the post-secondary institution received a 15 million USD Coin (USDC) donation from the Balvi Philanthropic Fund. The foundation is currently directed by Ethereum (ETH) co-founder Vitalik Buterin and “is a scientific investment and direct prize fund to rapidly distribute to high-quality COVID projects that institutional or commercial funding sources tend to overlook.” According to UCSD, the donation is the largest gift from a US university and will be used to establish the Meta-Institute for Airborne Disease in a Changing Climate, the “Airborne Institute.”
UCSD said that the newly established institute will focus on the study of airborne diseases like influenza, tuberculosis, and COVID-19. The ultimate goal is to develop new treatments, vaccines, and diagnostics for the disease while improving our understanding of how it spreads. Buterin said about the development:
“I am happy to support the creation of this new institute at UC San Diego, which will be able to increase scientific knowledge about airborne diseases and share them freely, so that infrastructure and policy changes benefit people around the world.”
Meanwhile, an atmospheric chemist and professor at UCSD, commented:
“Working together with health professionals, […] we will develop sophisticated measurement and computational tools to study these problems. The main goal is to develop a better understanding of the production and sources of airborne bioparticles and how long they remain infectious.
The institute will be located in UC San Diego’s School of Biological Sciences. Further research conducted by The Airborne Institute will be published in open access journals, along with other data. Intellectual property developed by The Airborne Institute will also be published in the public domain.
