Paul Allen invests $100M in brain research center

BOSTON - Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, who became an investor and philanthropist after leaving the company 20 years ago, has created the Allen Institute for Brain Science in Seattle and has pledged US$100 million in seed money for the project.

The nonprofit Allen Institute and the Allen Brain Atlas, the institute's inaugural project, have the goal of mapping the mammalian brain at the cellular level, merging neuroscience and genomics, it was announced Tuesday.

Researchers will create a research tool that will be accessible to the public and will overlay the brain's structural imagery with details about locations and functions of active genes in the brain, according to a statement announcing the institute and the financial pledge.

Predicting the institute's work will lead to "an immense advance in brain science," the statement said that research there will contribute to science, medical research and education, "supporting the development of new insights into normal brain function, as well as fundamental clues about the development and treatment of brain-related disorders, emotion, cognition, learning and memory." Third-party research into treatment and prevention of Alzheimer's Disease, schizophrenia, depression, autism, addiction and other disorders also could benefit.

Allen Institute co-founder Jo Allen Patton and project director Dr. Mark Boguski, a researcher in bioinformatics and genomics, will lead the Atlas project team. The institute and project Web site is at http://www.brainatlas.org/.