Microsoft cofounder funds new institute for cell science

PHILADELPHIA — Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen is giving $100 million over five years to fund cell science, Allan Jones, chief executive of the Allen Institute for Brain Science announced December 8 at the annual meeting of the American Society for Cell Biology.

The new Allen Institute for Cell Science will employ about 75 scientists from a variety of disciplines and will be housed in the same building in Seattle as the Allen Institute for Brain Science. The aim of the institute is to understand how a cell’s machinery fits together and functions in health and disease.

The institute will create a library of human stem cell strains in which each strain will carry a different fluorescently tagged protein so that scientists will be able to monitor each protein’s actions.

 “The cell is a dynamic spatial, temporal system and we need to understand that,” says cell biologist Rick Horwitz, currently at the University of Virginia, who will head the new institute.

More Stories from Science News on Science & Society

From the Nature Index

Paid Content