A human brain slabbing. Photo courtesy of the Allen Institute for Brain Science.
A human brain slabbing. Photo courtesy of the Allen Institute for Brain Science.

The Allen Institute for Brain Science has landed a $4.75 million grant from a federal initiative to help it further understand brain diseases and disorders.

The 9-year-old non-profit scientific organization was awarded the 3-year grant as part of President Obama’s $100 million BRAIN Initiative and will use the funds to continue building out its public database of cell types in the mouse brain.

Paul Allen
Paul Allen

“Support from the NIH through the BRAIN Initiative will be instrumental in helping advance a project that will impact and benefit the entire neuroscience community,” Allan Jones, CEO of the Allen Institute for Brain Science, said in a statement.

The grant will help add more data to the public database built by the Allen Institute, including information related to genetic, physiological, morphological, and connectional makeup of brain cells.

The $4.75 million grant is among $46 million awarded to 57 other groups today. Two scientists from the Allen Institute are speaking today in Washington D.C. for a White House BRAIN conference. You can watch the live stream here.

Rendering of the new headquarters for the Allen Institute for Brain Science. Via Perkins+Will
Rendering of the new headquarters for the Allen Institute for Brain Science. Via Perkins+Will

Over the past decade, Allen has committed $500 million toward understanding the brain through the non-profit. The Institute, which now employs about 270 people — including several world-renowned scientists in brain research — is aiming to ultimately transform the treatment of related diseases and disorders including autism, Alzheimer’s disease, and depression.

The organization, which has been spread among several buildings in Fremont, plans to consolidate operations in a new 245,000 square-foot building in South Lake Union next year.

Last year, the Microsoft co-founder also launched the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence to lead a new quest for the elusive goal of computers that can acquire human levels of knowledge, reason and understanding.

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