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news from the front lines of discovery
From scientific breakthroughs to new open‑source tools, the Allen Institute’s work is reshaping how science is done—and who it’s for. Explore the latest news, stories, and highlights from across our research, partnerships, and open science efforts.
Zapping the right brain cells: The path to improved stimulation
New findings could help scientists develop better ways to treat brain disorders with electrical stimulation.

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SciShots: The Brain’s Cleanup Crew and Paramedics
The shape-shifting microglia play a vital role in maintaining brain health
brain science
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Mapping the whole human brain: Allen Institute to lead global collaboration
NIH BRAIN Initiative to fund primate brain atlases, maps of developing mouse brain, coordination and knowledge sharing, and brain function research
brain science
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SciShots: The brain’s mysterious, multipurpose immune system
Microglial cells act as the brain’s waste disposal when healthy - can they be manipulated to protect against disease?
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science images

Opening up about open science
In five words, more or less, what does open science mean to you? We asked our talented teams at the Allen Institute who work on openly available...
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Look in the labs | Electron Microscopy Suite
See how researchers at the Allen Institute are using electron microscopy to map intricate connections between brain cells at ultra-high resolution.
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Look in the labs | Immunology
What makes the human immune system healthy, and what goes wrong in disease?
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Look in the labs | Neural Dynamics
How do different brain regions connect and communicate? Researchers at the Allen Institute for Neural Dynamics are 3D imaging whole mouse brains in...
neural dynamics
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23 interns, 4 coffee machines, 1 summer: Through the eyes of this year’s cohort of budding science professionals
Allen Institute welcomes interns on-site for the first time since 2019 - these are some of their stories
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From 300,000 mouse neurons, scientists hope to glean how the brain drives behavior
New public dataset captures billions of electrical spikes from brains of animals trained to identify ‘oddball’ photos
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Biologists Get $100 Million From Billionaire Paul Allen To Investigate Cells
With a gift of $100 million from billionaire philanthropist Paul G. Allen, scientists will embark on an effort to understand how cells work and how they malfunction in disease. Leaders of this new endeavor announced the launch of the Seattle-based Allen Institute for Cell Science today at the annual meeting of the American Society for Cell Biology in Philadelphia.
Billionaire Paul Allen donates $100m to new ‘industrial scale’ effort to understand human cells
Microsoft co-founder Paul G. Allen is donating $100 million of his fortune to launch what he calls an “industrial-scale” effort to understand the basic building block of all living things: the cell.
Microsoft mogul to create new cell science center
Science - Eleven years after he established an institute dedicated to mapping the brain, Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen is announcing a sequel: the Allen Institute for Cell Science. Just like its predecessor, the new institute will be seeded with $100 million from Allen himself; will embrace big-team science, bringing together cell biologists, mathematicians, computational biologists, and other specialists; and will seek to decipher a world whose complexity is still largely uncharted.


