The Allen Institute was founded in 2003 by investor and philanthropist Paul G. Allen, who co-founded Microsoft in 1975, and his sister Jody Allen, who sought to accelerate bioscience discovery in human health and disease. 

Our inaugural effort – to develop a complete, open-access, gene expression atlas of the mouse brain – has been cited thousands of times, saving research teams time, money, and lab resources in their pursuit of neuroscience advancement. The Allen Institute’s research now spans neuroscience, cell biology, immunology, machine learning, data science, and cutting-edge bioscience innovations worldwide. 

We remain audacious in our commitment to tackling big questions that accelerate science discovery. Today, Jody Allen serves as Board Chair of the Allen Institute, guiding our mission to transform human health through science for generations to come. Our multidisciplinary approach to tackling large-scale, foundational research continues to serve as the bedrock for scientific discovery, advancing the frontiers of bioscience.