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Allen Institute
The Allen Institute is a non-profit, bioscience research institute located in Seattle. It was founded by billionaire philanthropist Paul G. Allen in 2003. The Allen Institute conducts large-scale basic science research studying the brain, cells and immune system in an effort to accelerate science and disease research. The organization practices open science, in that they make all their data and resources publicly available for researchers to access.
The Allen Institute's research is focused on neuroscience, through the Allen Institute for Brain Science, founded in 2003, Allen Institute for Neural Dynamics, founded in 2021; cell biology, through the Allen Institute for Cell Science, founded in 2014; broad areas of bioscience and medical research, through The Paul G. Allen Frontiers Group, founded in 2016; and human immunology, through the Allen Institute for Immunology, founded in 2018. The Paul G. Allen Frontiers Group recommends research funding to scientific investigators outside the Allen Institute, while the other three divisions conduct research in-house.
The Allen Institute for Brain Science launched with an initial single scientific project, the Allen Mouse Brain Atlas, which aimed to map gene expression across the entire mouse brain. The publication describing that project, published in 2007, has been cited more than 1,800 times. The Allen Institute for Brain Science has since generated several other large-scale neuroscience projects, focusing on both the mouse and human brains in health and disease. Its most recent open-source projects focus on defining brain cell types in the healthy mouse and human brains through multimodal characterization of neurons and other brain cells, including their connectivity, electrophysiology, morphology and transcriptomic profiles; and on the cellular level of activity in the mouse visual cortex through the Allen Brain Observatory. In 2020, the National Institutes of Health awarded $40.5 million to launch a new research center headquartered at the Allen Institute focused on brain cell types in Alzheimer's disease.
The Allen Institute for Cell Science was modeled on the Allen Institute for Brain Science and was launched to capture a global view of human cells. The focus of the institute will be "How does information encoded in our genes become living cells, and what goes wrong when a disease affects those cells?" Research includes developing gene-edited, fluorescently tagged human induced pluripotent stem cells that form the backbone of an openly available library of digital microscopy images and computational models to predict cellular organization. The tagged cell lines are available for others in the scientific community to use, and have been used in research on kidney disease and cardiomyocyte function, among others. Ongoing projects at the institute include studies of cardiomyocyte differentiation and mitosis. Cell biology resources from the institute have been used in high school and college biology education, including at Washington State University.
The inaugural executive director for the institute was Rick Horwitz, formerly of the University of Virginia. Notable scientists include Joan Brugge and Julie Theriot.
The Paul G. Allen Frontiers Group recommends research funding from the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation to support bioscience and biomedical research. Projects supported by Frontiers Group awards include research on regeneration, gene drives, and human brain evolution, among many others. The Frontiers Group directs research support through two primary award mechanisms: Allen Distinguished Investigator awards, which are typically three-year, $1.5 million awards given to one or a small set of researchers, and Allen Discovery Center awards, which are larger grants given to launch new research centers. To date, four Allen Discovery Centers have been launched.
The Allen Institute for Immunology, was launched with a $125 million donation from Paul G. Allen two months after Allen's death. The Allen Institute for Immunology's initial research focus is on the healthy human immune system and on changes in the immune system in two cancers, multiple myeloma and melanoma, and in three autoimmune diseases, inflammatory bowel disease, Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis. The institute does not conduct clinical research, but rather partners with existing clinical research groups at other organizations who collaborate on research and provide patient samples; the institute's research partners are the Benaroya Research Institute at Virginia Mason, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, the University of California San Diego with the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, and the University of Pennsylvania. The institute's executive vice president and director is Susan Kaech, Ph.D.
The Allen Institute for Neural Dynamics was launched in November 2021, with a mission to study the neural circuits that support complex behavior. The institute is led by executive vice president Karel Svoboda (scientist).
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Allen Institute
The Allen Institute is a non-profit, bioscience research institute located in Seattle. It was founded by billionaire philanthropist Paul G. Allen in 2003. The Allen Institute conducts large-scale basic science research studying the brain, cells and immune system in an effort to accelerate science and disease research. The organization practices open science, in that they make all their data and resources publicly available for researchers to access.
The Allen Institute's research is focused on neuroscience, through the Allen Institute for Brain Science, founded in 2003, Allen Institute for Neural Dynamics, founded in 2021; cell biology, through the Allen Institute for Cell Science, founded in 2014; broad areas of bioscience and medical research, through The Paul G. Allen Frontiers Group, founded in 2016; and human immunology, through the Allen Institute for Immunology, founded in 2018. The Paul G. Allen Frontiers Group recommends research funding to scientific investigators outside the Allen Institute, while the other three divisions conduct research in-house.
The Allen Institute for Brain Science launched with an initial single scientific project, the Allen Mouse Brain Atlas, which aimed to map gene expression across the entire mouse brain. The publication describing that project, published in 2007, has been cited more than 1,800 times. The Allen Institute for Brain Science has since generated several other large-scale neuroscience projects, focusing on both the mouse and human brains in health and disease. Its most recent open-source projects focus on defining brain cell types in the healthy mouse and human brains through multimodal characterization of neurons and other brain cells, including their connectivity, electrophysiology, morphology and transcriptomic profiles; and on the cellular level of activity in the mouse visual cortex through the Allen Brain Observatory. In 2020, the National Institutes of Health awarded $40.5 million to launch a new research center headquartered at the Allen Institute focused on brain cell types in Alzheimer's disease.
The Allen Institute for Cell Science was modeled on the Allen Institute for Brain Science and was launched to capture a global view of human cells. The focus of the institute will be "How does information encoded in our genes become living cells, and what goes wrong when a disease affects those cells?" Research includes developing gene-edited, fluorescently tagged human induced pluripotent stem cells that form the backbone of an openly available library of digital microscopy images and computational models to predict cellular organization. The tagged cell lines are available for others in the scientific community to use, and have been used in research on kidney disease and cardiomyocyte function, among others. Ongoing projects at the institute include studies of cardiomyocyte differentiation and mitosis. Cell biology resources from the institute have been used in high school and college biology education, including at Washington State University.
The inaugural executive director for the institute was Rick Horwitz, formerly of the University of Virginia. Notable scientists include Joan Brugge and Julie Theriot.
The Paul G. Allen Frontiers Group recommends research funding from the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation to support bioscience and biomedical research. Projects supported by Frontiers Group awards include research on regeneration, gene drives, and human brain evolution, among many others. The Frontiers Group directs research support through two primary award mechanisms: Allen Distinguished Investigator awards, which are typically three-year, $1.5 million awards given to one or a small set of researchers, and Allen Discovery Center awards, which are larger grants given to launch new research centers. To date, four Allen Discovery Centers have been launched.
The Allen Institute for Immunology, was launched with a $125 million donation from Paul G. Allen two months after Allen's death. The Allen Institute for Immunology's initial research focus is on the healthy human immune system and on changes in the immune system in two cancers, multiple myeloma and melanoma, and in three autoimmune diseases, inflammatory bowel disease, Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis. The institute does not conduct clinical research, but rather partners with existing clinical research groups at other organizations who collaborate on research and provide patient samples; the institute's research partners are the Benaroya Research Institute at Virginia Mason, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, the University of California San Diego with the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, and the University of Pennsylvania. The institute's executive vice president and director is Susan Kaech, Ph.D.
The Allen Institute for Neural Dynamics was launched in November 2021, with a mission to study the neural circuits that support complex behavior. The institute is led by executive vice president Karel Svoboda (scientist).
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