Overview
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has established a non-profit medical research
organization, the Bill & Melinda Gates Medical Research Institute (Gates MRI), that will combat diseases that disproportionately impact the poor in low- and middle-income countries by accelerating progress in translational science. The Gates MRI’s mission is to eradicate malaria, accelerate the end of the tuberculosis epidemic, and end diarrheal
deaths in children.
The Gates MRI will be co-located in the Seattle and Boston metropolitan regions and Dr.
Penny Heaton, who formerly led the foundation’s Vaccine Development and Surveillance
Program, will lead the Gates MRI as CEO. The Gates MRI will formally commence
operations in early 2018. Over the next several years, it is expected that it will scale up to
employ 80-120 full-time employees supported by a steady state annual operating budget
of approximately $100 million.