Center for Strategic Philanthropy

The technology surrounding AI for health is evolving quickly, and academic institutions, health systems, industry, and government bodies are making financial investments to enable scientists and clinicians to adopt these tools more widely. 

While many federal funders and some philanthropic organizations are currently focused on using these tools to understand disease mechanisms, there is a need to ensure tools are being used intentionally and strategically for the long-term benefit of human health. There are many opportunities on the horizon to expand open-data initiatives, facilitate how AI tools are integrated to advance health, and fund the expansion of AI tools across all stages of medicine. 

SPARC’s Funders for AI in Health is a cohort of philanthropic leaders who invest in biomedical research and wish to accelerate the path to progress using the transformative potential of AI.

Join Us

Goals

• Build collaboration among funders looking to leverage AI tools to further medical research.

• Coordinate and co-fund initiatives to amplify impact.

• Communicate emerging gaps as the technology advances and provide opportunities for philanthropic funding to fill those gaps.

• Share insights from the field and offer recommendations on funding to fill gaps. 

Who Can Participate

Funders for AI in Health is for high-impact philanthropists who already fund or are interested in funding biomedical research and recognize the potential for AI to achieve their vision of a healthy world.

Why Participate

• Become part of a community of peers and subject matter experts.

• Gain early access to MI SPARC insights and findings on AI in health.

• Shape the future of how AI tools are used to create equity in medical research and clinical care.

About Computational Biology

The research and health ecosystem has entered an era where vast amounts of biological and clinical data are continuously generated. Integrating, analyzing, and understanding these data are only possible with computational tools such as artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning. Incorporating such tools across the biomedical ecosystem has great promise to further the understanding of biological mechanisms, advance translational research, and enhance clinical care for better patient outcomes. 

The field of computational biology sits at the nexus of biology, big data, and computer science. The principles of AI intersect with the larger discipline of computational biology. Methods and approaches use mathematical modeling, simulations, analytics, statistical methods, and algorithm development to address biology-based questions. 

The application of computational tools can revolutionize how to study, prevent, and treat human disease. However, the unique nature of the biomedical ecosystem brings specific challenges that must be overcome before the promise of these tools to help people live longer and healthier lives can be fully realized.

The Biswas Family Foundation partnered with the Milken Institute Science Philanthropy Accelerator for Research and Collaboration (SPARC) in 2023 to conduct a comprehensive review of the computational biology field and identify areas of opportunity for philanthropy to advance the integration of computational tools in biomedical research and clinical care. 

Using the findings and insights from this analysis, which are published in Transformative Computational Biology, a Giving Smarter Guide, the Biswas Family Foundation developed the Transformative Computational Biology Grant Program, which is focused on accelerating the use of computational approaches in translational research and clinical settings to improve the well-being and health of the global community.

In the first cycle of the Transformative Computational Biology Grant Program, the Biswas Family Foundation will fund five multidisciplinary research teams across the US for almost $14 million over three years. The funded grants aim to leverage computational approaches and AI within biomedical research for improved disease diagnosis and treatment. Learn more about the 2024 Grant Awardees. 

Frontotemporal Dementia

Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) describes brain conditions characterized by progressive degeneration of the brain’s frontal and temporal lobes. Worldwide, an estimated 1.5 million people are thought to be living with FTD. However, the disease is widely believed to be underdiagnosed and undercounted, and little is known about FTD diagnosis rates across distinct racial and ethnic groups.

Diagnosing FTD is challenging and requires a combination of methods, including physical examination, behavioral assessments, brain imaging, genetic testing, and family medical history. Like most other neurodegenerative diseases, a definitive diagnosis of FTD can only be made upon death after autopsy. 

FTD tends to affect people earlier in life than other forms of dementia, which can lead to misdiagnosed psychiatric conditions and inadequate treatments. FTD is thought to be the most common form of dementia in people under the age of 60, with the average age of onset between ages 45 and 65. Although not fatal, FTD symptoms progress to the point where patients need full-time care. The average life expectancy is about 7.5 years after symptom onset.

About the Kissick Family Foundation FTD Grant Program 

The Kissick Family Foundation partnered with MI Philanthropy’s Science and Health team in 2022 to analyze and understand the state of the FTD research ecosystem and identify where philanthropic investments could be deployed to overcome barriers to scientific progress. 

Using the data and insights from this analysis, which are published in Frontotemporal Dementia, a Giving Smarter Guide, the Kissick Family Foundation aims to make investments in research that accelerate basic discoveries, expedite novel treatment options, and improve patient outcomes for people living with FTD. 

The first-ever request for funding proposals of the grant program, announced in November 2023, will make up to $2.5 million in total funding and be made available to researchers from around the world whose work aims to increase scientific understanding of FTD. 

Please view the RFP for more details. The submissions for this cycle are now closed and applications are under review. Awardees for this funding cycle should expect to be notified in May 2024.