Microsoft’s co-founder supports the fight against cancer

Jan 21, 2013 23:31 GMT  ·  By

Bill Gates, Microsoft co-founder and chairman, has decided to invest in Foundation Medicine, a Cambridge-based company that fights cancer.

Gates and two other investors will donate approximately $13.5 million (€10.1 million) to support the Foundation’s efforts in developing new ways to cure cancer as the company had already created a $5,800 (€4,300) test for the disease.

“Advances in understanding the human genome are having a dramatic impact on almost every area of medicine. Foundation Medicine’s approach in harnessing the power of genomic data to improve care for cancer patients could represent an extremely important step forward in improving routine cancer care. I’m happy to be supporting this quite promising approach,” Bill Gates said, according to Forbes.

Gates recently said in an interview with The Telegraph that he had no personal use for his money, so he would continue to support his charity in order to fight polio around the world.