The Open Philanthropy Project granted US$17.5 million last year to Sherlock Biosciences, a startup firm in Cambridge, Mass., that’s developing quick, inexpensive tools for diagnosing viruses…

That donors are stepping up to give to scientific research as well as to human services on the front lines of the virus is evident to Valerie Conn, president of the Science Philanthropy Alliance in Palo Alto, Calif.., which was formed about eight years ago by a group of foundations concerned about federal cutbacks to basic scientific research.

Conn has been directing many of them to the Therapeutics Accelerator and to a fund run by the World Health Organization, as well as to the fundamental research programs at local universities and medical centers, many of which are doing research to viral pandemics, she says.

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