--- description: Find out how David Fajgenbaum is shaping the future and defining the next generation of leadership. title: David Fajgenbaum Is on the 2025 TIME100 Next image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt48a113a8c0cb3bec/6998c9f266d4e3003ecbcdb3/t100-next-2025-david-fajgenbaum.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Sep 30, 2025 # David Fajgenbaum by Priscilla Chan  Hannah Yoon—The New York Times/Redux In 2010, David Fajgenbaum went from being a healthy medical student to a critically ill patient in the ICU. Diagnosed with Castle­man disease, a rare and deadly condition with little research behind it, David turned his personal crisis into purpose. Over a few years and four near-death relapses, he founded the Castleman Disease Collaborative Network, uniting researchers, patients, and clinicians worldwide to align on a coordinated strategy for tackling this disease. David’s approach worked, enabling him to identify an underlying mechanism and treatment for Castleman disease that has supported his remission for more than 11 years. His network model has inspired dozens of rare-­disease communities, and his personal victory evolved into his life’s mission. In 2022, David co-founded Every Cure, a nonprofit that uses AI to systematically identify new uses for existing medications. In 2024, it received $48.3 million in federal funding to further expand this work—an approach that is already saving lives and giving new hope to patients with rare diseases and their families. _Chan is a co-founder and co-CEO of the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, which has provided funding for Every Cure_ David Fajgenbaum: TIME100 Next 2025 ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/time100-next-2025/7318850/david-fajgenbaum-2/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/time100-next-2025/7318850/david-fajgenbaum-2/"},"headline":"David Fajgenbaum","datePublished":"2025-09-30T11:05:33.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-03T02:30:11.998Z","description":"","url":"https://time.com/collections/time100-next-2025/7318850/david-fajgenbaum-2/","keywords":["TIME100 Next","sponsorshipblock"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt48a113a8c0cb3bec/6998c9f266d4e3003ecbcdb3/t100-next-2025-david-fajgenbaum.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"creator":"TIME Staff","articleSection":"World","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt48a113a8c0cb3bec/6998c9f266d4e3003ecbcdb3/t100-next-2025-david-fajgenbaum.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/world/","name":"World"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time100-next/","name":"TIME100 Next"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/time100-next-2025/7318850/david-fajgenbaum-2/","name":"David Fajgenbaum"}}]}] ```