One Brave Idea

Dr. Calum MacRae, MD, PhD, is the One Brave Idea Leader and principal investigator. He oversees the research direction and team selection, as the initiative is a single concentrated research grant rather than an investment vehicle. MacRae serves as Vice Chair for Scientific Innovation at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School.

The initiative's core focus was selected through an open competition — Dr. MacRae's proposal was chosen from hundreds of applicants world-wide (per the firm). Once awarded, the research agenda is executed by a team of investigators from institutions including MIT, Stanford, and the Broad Institute, with access to clinical data from BWH.

Neither. One Brave Idea is a time-limited research initiative funded by a consortium of corporate and nonprofit partners: the American Heart Association, Verily, AstraZeneca, and Quest Diagnostics. It operates as a grant-making and research execution vehicle with a five-year horizon, not as an asset manager or family office.

It never makes fund commitments or direct investments. The sole commitment is the $75 million award to Dr. MacRae's team. The initiative's capital is entirely deployed on research operations, personnel, and clinical infrastructure at the Boston Science Innovation Center.

Not applicable — One Brave Idea is not an investor. It funds early-stage scientific research into the causes and detection of coronary heart disease, with emphasis on pre-diagnosis signals (deep phenotyping) rather than clinical-stage therapeutics or devices.

The initiative explicitly avoids funding beyond coronary heart disease research. It does not invest in any commercial sectors, later-stage biotech, or non-cardiology indications. Its mandate is strictly the detection and understanding of the earliest stages of CHD.

One Brave Idea was co-founded by the American Heart Association and Verily (part of Alphabet). AstraZeneca and Quest Diagnostics are significant supporters. These organizations provided the $75 million funding pool and continue to provide strategic guidance, but the day-to-day research is led independently by Dr. MacRae's team at BWH and Harvard.