 Headquarters of the Allen Institute for Brain Science | |
| Formation | 2003; 22 years ago (2003) |
|---|---|
| Founders | Paul Allen,Jody Allen |
| Type | 501(c)(3) |
| Purpose | Neuroscience,brain research,biology,technology |
| Headquarters | Seattle, Washington, U.S. |
Area served | Worldwide |
Key people | Hongkui Zeng (director) Christof Koch (chief scientist of the Mindscope Program) |
| Website | alleninstitute |
TheAllen Institute for Brain Science is a division of theAllen Institute, based inSeattle, Washington, that focuses onbioscience research. Founded in 2003, it is dedicated to accelerating the understanding of how thehuman brain works. With the intent of catalyzing brainresearch in different areas, the Allen Institute provides free data and tools to scientists.
Started with $100 million in seed money fromMicrosoft co-founder and philanthropistPaul Allen in 2003, the institute tackles projects at the leading edge of science—far-reaching projects at the intersection of biology and technology. The resulting data create free, publicly available resources that fuel discovery for countless researchers.[1]Hongkui Zeng is the current director of the institute.[2]
The Allen Institute for Brain Science is a scientific division of the Allen Institute, a nonprofit research organization that also includes theAllen Institute for Cell Science, launched in 2014.[1] The Paul G. Allen Frontiers Group was launched in 2016 while the Allen Institute for Immunology was launched in 2018.[3] All four divisions of the Allen Institute are housed in the same building in Seattle'sSouth Lake Union neighborhood.[3] The institute employs a business model that combines the operational agility and accountability of a for-profit enterprise with the founding vision to take on ambitious projects in neuroscience.
In 2012, the institute received an additional pledge of $300 million from Paul Allen, bringing his total commitment to $500 million.[4]
The Allen Institute for Brain Science provides researchers and educators with a variety of unique online public resources for exploring the nervous system.[5] Integrating extensivegene expression data andneuroanatomy, along with data search and viewing tools, these resources are openly accessible via theAllen Brain Atlas data portal.
The inaugural project of the Allen Institute was announced on September 26, 2006.[6] Named the Allen Brain Atlas, it was a web-based, three-dimensional map ofgene expression in the mouse brain detailing more than 21,000 genes at the cellular level. Since the project's launch, it has been renamed the Allen Mouse Brain Atlas to distinguish it from subsequent atlas projects.
On July 17, 2008, the Allen Institute for Brain Science launched theonline AllenSpinal Cord Atlas.[4] The spinal cord atlas is an interactive,genome-wide map showing where eachgene is expressed, or "turned on", throughout themouse spinal cord. It is set up like the Allen Institute's earlier atlas of the adult mouse brain.[7] The map could help reveal new treatments for humanneurological disorders. The map points researchers toward places where genes are active.[8][9][10]
The Allen Spinal Cord Atlas led to the discovery of a new class of cells in the spinal cord that behave likestem cells, according to researchers at the University of British Columbia.Jane Roskams, the neuroscientist who led the study, said that, "By using the Allen Spinal Cord Atlas, we were able to discover a brand new cell type that has previously been overlooked and that could be an important player in all manner of spinal cord injury and disease, including multiple sclerosis and ALS."[11]
On November 14, 2008, the Allen Institute for Brain Science announced the launch of the Allen Developing Mouse Brain Atlas, providing a highly detailed map of gene activity in the mouse brain at several time points acrossdevelopment,[12] including four embryonic ages, three postnatal, and aging time points.[13] Thein situ hybridization data is accompanied by a set of reference atlases drawn by neuroanatomist Luis Puelles.
On May 24, 2010, the Allen Institute announced it was expanding its tools from the mouse into the human brain with the launch of the Allen Human Brain Atlas.[14] This highly comprehensive atlas integrates several kinds of data, including data collected bymagnetic resonance imaging (MRI),diffusion tensor technology (DTI), as well ashistology andgene expression data derived from bothmicroarray andin situ hybridization (ISH) approaches.[15] The Allen Human Brain Atlas allows researchers to see where a gene is turned on. "The location of where these genes are active is at the very center of understanding how brain diseases work", neurologist Jeffrey L. Noebels toldThe Wall Street Journal in April 2011.[16] The Allen Human Brain Atlas was profiled in the journalNature on September 19, 2012.[17]
The Allen Mouse Brain Connectivity Atlas was launched online on November 3, 2011, and moved the Allen Institute's mapping efforts beyond its historical focus ongene expression towardneural circuitry. The atlas is a three-dimensional, high-resolution map ofneural connections throughout the mouse brain, designed to help scientists understand how the brain is wired, offering new insights into how the brain works and what goes awry in brain diseases and disorders.[18]
Launched in 2015, the Allen Cell Types Database is a new tool to help scientists understand the building blocks of the brain and a major step toward creating a comprehensive map of the brain. The database will help create a common language for researchers around the world to use in observing, measuring and ultimately sorting cells into types much like theperiodic table sorts elements. The first release of data includes information on more than 240 cells in the mouse brain.[19] In 2017, the Allen Institute added data from human brain cells to the database.[20]
The Allen Brain Observatory was launched in 2016 to capture cellular-level activity of neurons in the mouse visual cortex.[21] Experiments through the observatory use visual or electrical readouts of neural activity as animals see visual stimuli, ranging from natural images to black and white grid lines to a clip from theOrson Welles film noir,Touch of Evil. In 2018, the institute opened the observatory for research projects proposed by scientists from the broader community through a program called OpenScope, which was modeled after large-scale shared physics observatories such as theHubble Space Telescope.[22]
In addition to the atlas resources, the Allen Institute has generated several other online research tools, including:
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