Allen Institute

Last updated
Allen Institute
Formation2003;21 years ago (2003)
Founders Paul Allen, Jody Allen
TypeIndependent, nonprofit medical research organization
(IRS exemption status): 501(c)(3)
PurposeBasic science research in neuroscience, cell biology, immunology
Headquarters Seattle, Washington, United States
Area served
Worldwide
Key people
 Paul Allen, founder
Jody Allen, founder,
Rui Costa, D.V.M., Ph.D., CEO
Employees
~825
Website alleninstitute.org
Entryway to the Allen Institute building in Seattle, Washington AlFront.jpg
Entryway to the Allen Institute building in Seattle, Washington

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 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. [1] [2]

Contents

Scientific Focus

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; [3] broad areas of bioscience and medical research, through The Paul G. Allen Frontiers Group, founded in 2016; [4] and human immunology, through the Allen Institute for Immunology, founded in 2018. [5] 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.

Allen Institute for Brain Science

The Allen Institute for Brain Science launched with an initial single scientific project, the Allen Mouse Brain Atlas, [6] 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. [7] 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 [8] and human [9] 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 [10] 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. [11]

Allen Institute for Cell Science

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, developing gene-edited, fluorescently tagged human induced pluripotent stem cells [12] that form the backbone of an openly available library of digital microscopy images [13] and computational models [14] to predict cellular organization. The tagged cell lines are available for others in the scientific community to use, [15] and have been used in research on kidney disease [16] and cardiomyocyte function, [17] among others. Ongoing projects at the institute include studies of cardiomyocyte differentiation [18] and mitosis. [19] Cell biology resources from the institute have been used in high school and college biology education, including at Washington State University. [20]

The Paul G. Allen Frontiers Group

The Paul G. Allen Frontiers Group recommends research funding from the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation to support bioscience and biomedical research. [21] Projects supported by Frontiers Group awards include research on regeneration, [22] gene drives, [23] and human brain evolution, [24] 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. [21] To date, four Allen Discovery Centers have been launched. [24] [21]

Allen Institute for Immunology

The Allen Institute for Immunology, was launched with a $125 million donation from Paul G. Allen two months after Allen's death. [5] 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. [25] 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. [21] The institute's executive vice president and director is Ananda Goldrath, Ph.D.

Allen Institute for Neural Dynamics

The Allen Institute for Neural Dynamics was launched in November 2021, with a mission to study the neural circuits that support complex behavior. [26] The institute is led by executive vice president Karel Svoboda (scientist).

Scientific approach

The Allen Institute employs three core principles that distinguish it from traditional academic laboratory and industry organization settings. Their large-scale, data-rich "big science" projects aim to answer fundamental questions of biology. Cross-functional groups of employees with differing specialties work together in a collaborative "team science" environment. All data and resources generated within the Institute are made publicly available as part of their "open science" model. Notable public resources include the Allen Mouse Brain and Human Brain Atlases. [1] [2]

Board of directors

The Allen Institute Board of Directors is chaired by Jody Allen. Other current board members are Margaret Anderson, Joanne Berger-Sweeney, Ph.D., Phyllis J. Campbell, Alta Charo, J.D., Thomas L Daniel, Ph.D., Carla DewBerry, Steve Hall, Allan Jones, Ph.D., and Michael Stryker, Ph.D. [27]

Accomplishments

Collaborations

The Allen Institute for Brain Science is part of the MICrONS program, which is funded by IARPA. The research collaboration aims to map all the synapses in one cubic millimeter of the mouse brain, [30] the largest such connectomics project to date. [31]

The Allen Institute for Brain Science hosts the BRAIN Initiative Cell Census Network, or BICCN, web data portal. This collaborative effort, funded by the National Institutes of Health, aims to create comprehensive catalogs of brain cell types from mouse, human and monkeys. [32]

Headquarters

Allen Institute Headquarters Allen Institute Headquarters at night.jpg
Allen Institute Headquarters

The Allen Institute is located in the South Lake Union neighborhood of Seattle, Washington and houses the Allen Institute for Brain Science, the Allen Institute for Cell Science, the Allen Institute for Immunology, and the Paul G. Allen Frontiers Group. The architects of the building were Perkins + Will and construction was conducted by GLY. It is a LEED-Gold certified green building. [33] [34] The building is located at 615 Westlake Ave N and was dedicated on December 4, 2015, [35] and was a runner up for building of the year by the Seattle Daily Journal of Commerce. [36]

To help facilitate their collaborative team science approach, the six-story building was designed around a central atrium, alternating laboratories with traditional and flexible meeting spaces throughout. [37] The building also includes an auditorium were multiple public events and symposia are held.

The location of the Allen Institute was home to the historic McKay Ford and Pacific auto dealer, built in the early 1920s. [38] During construction the 2,760 piece terra cotta façade was removed and reinstalled upon completion of the building. [39] It houses a craft beer hall with mini golf and other games. [40]

Jaume Plensa's sculpture Mirall was installed outside the building in October 2015. [41] [42] The art work features two large figures, each about 12 feet tall (3.6 metres).

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Neuroscience</span> Scientific study of the nervous system

Neuroscience is the scientific study of the nervous system, its functions and disorders. It is a multidisciplinary science that combines physiology, anatomy, molecular biology, developmental biology, cytology, psychology, physics, computer science, chemistry, medicine, statistics, and mathematical modeling to understand the fundamental and emergent properties of neurons, glia and neural circuits. The understanding of the biological basis of learning, memory, behavior, perception, and consciousness has been described by Eric Kandel as the "epic challenge" of the biological sciences.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paul Allen</span> American business magnate (1953–2018)

Paul Gardner Allen was an American business magnate, computer programmer, researcher, investor, film producer, and philanthropist. He is best known for co-founding Microsoft Corporation with his childhood friend Bill Gates in 1975, which helped spark the microcomputer revolution of the 1970s and 1980s. Allen was ranked as the 44th-wealthiest person in the world by Forbes in 2018, with an estimated net worth of $20.3 billion at the time of his death.

Neuroinformatics is the field that combines informatics and neuroscience. Neuroinformatics is related with neuroscience data and information processing by artificial neural networks. There are three main directions where neuroinformatics has to be applied:

The Blue Brain Project is a Swiss brain research initiative that aims to create a digital reconstruction of the mouse brain. The project was founded in May 2005 by the Brain and Mind Institute of École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland. Its mission is to use biologically-detailed digital reconstructions and simulations of the mammalian brain to identify the fundamental principles of brain structure and function.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Allen Institute for Brain Science</span> Research institute based in Seattle, WA, USA

The Allen Institute for Brain Science is a division of the Allen Institute, based in Seattle, Washington, that focuses on bioscience research. Founded in 2003, it is dedicated to accelerating the understanding of how the human brain works. With the intent of catalyzing brain research in different areas, the Allen Institute provides free data and tools to scientists.

Connectomics is the production and study of connectomes: comprehensive maps of connections within an organism's nervous system. More generally, it can be thought of as the study of neuronal wiring diagrams with a focus on how structural connectivity, individual synapses, cellular morphology, and cellular ultrastructure contribute to the make up of a network. The nervous system is a network made of billions of connections and these connections are responsible for our thoughts, emotions, actions, memories, function and dysfunction. Therefore, the study of connectomics aims to advance our understanding of mental health and cognition by understanding how cells in the nervous system are connected and communicate. Because these structures are extremely complex, methods within this field use a high-throughput application of functional and structural neural imaging, most commonly magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), electron microscopy, and histological techniques in order to increase the speed, efficiency, and resolution of these nervous system maps. To date, tens of large scale datasets have been collected spanning the nervous system including the various areas of cortex, cerebellum, the retina, the peripheral nervous system and neuromuscular junctions.

Brain simulation is the concept of creating a functioning computer model of a brain or part of a brain. Brain simulation projects intend to contribute to a complete understanding of the brain, and eventually also assist the process of treating and diagnosing brain diseases.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David J. Anderson</span> American neurobiologist (born 1956)

David J. Anderson is an American neurobiologist. He is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator. His lab is located at the California Institute of Technology, where he currently holds the position of Seymour Benzer Professor of Biology, TianQiao and Chrissy Chen Leadership Chair and Director, TianQiao and Chrissy Chen Institute for Neuroscience. Anderson is a founding adviser of the Allen Institute for Brain Research, a non-profit research institute funded by the late Paul G. Allen, and spearheaded the Institute's early effort to generate a comprehensive map of gene expression in the mouse brain.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">MBF Bioscience</span>

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The White House BRAIN Initiative is a collaborative, public-private research initiative announced by the Obama administration on April 2, 2013, with the goal of supporting the development and application of innovative technologies that can create a dynamic understanding of brain function.

The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to brain mapping:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jeanne Loring</span> American biologist

Jeanne Frances Loring is an American stem cell biologist, developmental neurobiologist, and geneticist. She is the founding Director of the Center for Regenerative Medicine and emeritus professor at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California. She has founded two biotechnology companies, Arcos BioScience (1999) and Aspen Neuroscience (2018)

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rafael Yuste</span>

Rafael Yuste is a Spanish-American neurobiologist and one of the initiators of the BRAIN Initiative announced in 2013. He is currently a professor at Columbia University.

Rosehip neurons are inhibitory GABAergic neurons present in the first layer of the human cerebral cortex. They make up about 10-15% of all inhibitory neurons in Layer 1. Neurons of this type exist in humans, but have not been reported in rodents.

Jeffrey D. Macklis is an American neuroscientist. He is the Max and Anne Wien Professor of Life Sciences in the Department of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology and Center for Brain Science at Harvard University, Professor of Neurology [Neuroscience] at Harvard Medical School, and on the Executive Committee and a Member of the Principal Faculty of the Neuroscience / Nervous System Diseases Program at the Harvard Stem Cell Institute.

Kristin K. Baldwin is an American scientist who is a professor at the Department of Genetics and Development at Columbia University. Her research focuses on using reprogrammed and induced pluripotent stem cells to identify mechanisms and therapies related to human genetic risk for neurologic and cardiovascular disease. Her lab also studies how disease and aging affect the genome; they have used cloning to produce the first complete genome sequence of a single neuron and helped assess the effect of aging on induced pluripotent stem cells that may be used for cell therapies. They also design bespoke neuronal cells in a dish to understand brain function and disease. Baldwin's earlier work included being the first to clone a mouse from a neuron and being one of three groups to first produce an entire mouse from a skin cell by generating induced pluripotent stem cells. epigenetic changes of the genome and the brain.

Hongkui Zeng is the Director of the Allen Institute for Brain Science in Seattle, where she leads the creation of open-access datasets and tools to accelerate neuroscience discovery. In 2011-2014 Zeng led the team that created the Allen Mouse Brain Connectivity Atlas, which indicates which regions of the mouse brain are connected to which other regions. Since then, she has led the creation of atlases of neuronal cell types in the brain of humans and mice.

References

  1. 1 2 "Allen Institute's leaders lay out vision for bringing more openness to Big Science". GeekWire. 2016-11-04. Retrieved 2020-06-29.
  2. 1 2 Koch, Christof; Jones, Allan (2016-11-02). "Big Science, Team Science, and Open Science for Neuroscience". Neuron. 92 (3): 612–616. doi: 10.1016/j.neuron.2016.10.019 . ISSN   0896-6273. PMID   27810003.
  3. ↑ Flam, Faye. "Biologists Get $100 Million From Billionaire Paul Allen To Investigate Cells". Forbes. Retrieved 2020-06-29.
  4. ↑ "Paul Allen launches $100M Frontiers Group program for 'out-of-the-box' bioscience". GeekWire. 2016-03-23. Retrieved 2020-06-29.
  5. 1 2 "Allen Institute announces $125 million gift to probe human immunology". STAT. 2018-12-12. Retrieved 2020-06-29.
  6. ↑ "A Digital 3-D Brain Map Breakthrough". NPR.org. Retrieved 2020-06-29.
  7. ↑ Lein, Ed S.; Hawrylycz, Michael J.; Ao, Nancy; Ayres, Mikael; Bensinger, Amy; Bernard, Amy; Boe, Andrew F.; Boguski, Mark S.; Brockway, Kevin S.; Byrnes, Emi J.; Chen, Lin (2007-01-11). "Genome-wide atlas of gene expression in the adult mouse brain". Nature. 445 (7124): 168–176. Bibcode:2007Natur.445..168L. doi:10.1038/nature05453. ISSN   1476-4687. PMID   17151600. S2CID   4421492.
  8. ↑ "Neuroscientists draw up a 'parts list' covering 133 different types of brain cells". GeekWire. 2018-11-01. Retrieved 2020-06-29.
  9. ↑ "Scientists And Surgeons Team Up To Create Virtual Human Brain Cells". NPR.org. Retrieved 2020-06-29.
  10. ↑ "When you show a mouse a movie: Allen Institute opens window into brain". The Seattle Times. 2016-07-13. Retrieved 2020-06-29.
  11. ↑ "Project Information - NIH RePORTER - NIH Research Portfolio Online Reporting Tools Expenditures and Results". projectreporter.nih.gov. Retrieved 2020-06-29.
  12. ↑ "CRISPR in color: Allen Institute edits genes to create color-coded stem cells". GeekWire. 2016-11-30. Retrieved 2020-06-29.
  13. ↑ "Paul Allen's latest science project: a psychedelic way to peer inside cells". The Seattle Times. 2017-04-05. Retrieved 2020-06-29.
  14. ↑ Hamilton, Jon (9 May 2018). "Artificial Intelligence Takes Scientists Inside Living Human Cells". NPR. Retrieved 2020-06-29.
  15. ↑ Hamilton, Jon (30 November 2016). "Glowing Human Cells May Shed Light On Sickness And Health". NPR. Retrieved 2020-06-29.
  16. ↑ "Allen Institute for Cell Science features Freedman Lab research - Illuminating the Kidney | Division of Nephrology | University of Washington". nephrology.uw.edu. Retrieved 2020-06-29.
  17. ↑ "Christopher Chen explains the importance of Allen Institute's cell lines in "Cell Shorts" video | Engineering Research Center in Cellular Metamaterials". www.bu.edu. Retrieved 2020-06-29.
  18. ↑ "Image of the Day: Beating Heart". The Scientist Magazine®. Retrieved 2020-06-29.
  19. ↑ "Allen Institute researchers show how cells divide in first-of-its-kind 3D model". GeekWire. 2019-05-22. Retrieved 2020-06-29.
  20. ↑ Wolcott, R. J. (2020-04-22). "WSU professors create virtual lab on cell development | WSU Insider | Washington State University". WSU Insider. Retrieved 2020-06-29.
  21. 1 2 3 4 Cha, Ariana Eunjung. "Philanthropist Paul Allen announces $100 million gift to expand 'frontiers of bioscience'". Washington Post. Retrieved 2020-06-29.
  22. ↑ "Regeneration science takes a leap forward". Tufts Now. 2018-11-02. Retrieved 2020-06-29.
  23. ↑ Fikes, Bradley J. (2016-06-04). "UCSD gene drive technology offers life-transforming power". San Diego Union-Tribune. Retrieved 2020-06-29.
  24. 1 2 "Biomedical labs at UW and in Boston win $10M grants from Allen Frontiers Group". GeekWire. 2017-07-05. Retrieved 2020-06-29.
  25. ↑ "Allen Institute launches new immunology division with $125M from its late founder". GeekWire. 2018-12-12. Retrieved 2020-06-29.
  26. ↑ "Announcing the Allen Institute for Neural Dynamics, a new neuroscience division of the Allen Institute". Allen Institute. Retrieved 2023-12-18.
  27. ↑ "Tech Moves: Allen Institute adds former governor to board; Starbucks hires a CMO; and more". GeekWire. 2020-02-20. Retrieved 2020-06-29.
  28. ↑ Daley, Jason. "Meet the Rosehip Neuron: A Newly Discovered Cell in the Human Brain". Smithsonian Magazine. Retrieved 2020-06-29.
  29. ↑ Nield, David. "Scientists Just Took a Closer Look at an Incredibly Rare Human Brain Cell Type". ScienceAlert. Retrieved 2020-06-29.
  30. ↑ Cepelewicz, Jordana. "The U.S. Government Launches a $100-Million "Apollo Project of the Brain"". Scientific American. Retrieved 2020-06-29.
  31. ↑ "MICrONS". www.iarpa.gov. Retrieved 2020-06-29.
  32. ↑ "NIH BRAIN Initiative launches cell census". National Institutes of Health (NIH). 2017-10-23. Retrieved 2020-06-29.
  33. ↑ Keeley, Sean (2015-06-10). "New Allen Institute Building Unveils Historic Terra Cotta Facade". Curbed Seattle. Retrieved 2020-06-29.
  34. ↑ "Vulcan Block 43 | Allen Institute | Seattle". GLY Construction. Retrieved 2020-06-29.
  35. ↑ "Inside the Allen Institute's new headquarters". www.bizjournals.com. 1 December 2015. Retrieved 2020-06-29.
  36. ↑ 2015 Building of the Year, Seattle Daily Journal of Commerce.
  37. ↑ "Allen Institute for Brain Science – Perkins and Will". perkinswill.com. Retrieved 2020-06-29.
  38. ↑ Pryne, Eric (2008-06-14). "Vulcan wants to relocate historic pieces of Lake Union dealerships". The Seattle Times. Retrieved 2020-06-29.
  39. ↑ "Make new buildings, keep the old: Allen Institute HQ built with Seattle historic landmarks". www.bizjournals.com. Retrieved 2020-06-29.
  40. ↑ "Flatstick Pub opens largest location yet in South Lake Union (Photos)". www.bizjournals.com. Retrieved 2020-06-29.
  41. ↑ "Creative Connections - Discover South Lake Union". Discover South Lake Union. Retrieved 2018-04-09.
  42. ↑ "Allen Institute adds artist-in-residence to interact with scientists and provoke mutual inspiration". GeekWire. 2018-03-21. Retrieved 2018-04-09.
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