Mark Zuckerberg and his wife have pledged more than $3bn towards an ambitious plan to rid the world of disease.

Mark Zuckerberg and his wife have pledged more than $3bn towards an ambitious plan to rid the world of disease.

The Facebook founder and his wife, paediatrician Priscilla Chan, said the goal was to "cure, prevent or manage all disease within our children's lifetime".

Investment will go towards research into cancer and infectious disease as well as heart and neurological disease, the couple said.

The plans were revealed during an event in San Francisco for their philanthropic group, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, on Wednesday.

Dr Chan said they launched the initiative following the birth of daughter Max last year, with the goal of dramatically improving the lives of all other children in her generation.

She recalled experiences of telling parents their child had an incurable disease or could not be revived, and said her role as a doctor had made her determined to work with scientists to help save lives.

The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative mission statement states: "We want every child to grow up in a better world.

"Our hopes for the future centre on two ideas: advancing human potential and promoting equality.

"We'll focus first on personalised learning, curing disease, connecting people and building strong communities.

"We will make long-term investments over 25, 50 or even 100 years because our greatest challenges require time to solve."