Seattle’s Allen Institute has launched a new division called The Allen Institute for Neural Dynamics, which will explore how the brain executes complex actions like decision making, learning and memory.
The new division will be led by neuroscientist Karel Svoboda. He will move to Seattle from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Janelia Research Campus in Virginia, where he is currently a senior group leader.
“The Allen Institute for Neural Dynamics will focus on understanding how the brain, as a whole, solves problems to drive our behavior and ultimately to enable our survival in complex and ever-changing environments,” said Svoboda in a press release.
The division will first focus on research aimed at understanding how the brain controls food foraging in mice, an area Svoboda studies.
“In a situation like foraging, [mammals] learn much faster than any kind of algorithm that artificial intelligence would throw at a similar problem,” Svoboda said. “There’s something about the structure of neural circuits that has evolved to implement that quick learning, and that’s what we’d like to discover. How do the structures of neural circuits accelerate learning?”
Hiring is underway to build up a group of more than 60 employees in the next couple years. Research associates, scientists, software engineers and optical engineers will work in the Allen Institute’s building in Seattle’s South Lake Union neighborhood.
The new division will complement the work of the Allen Institute for Brain Science, which is focused on mapping brain cells and how they connect to form networks. Researchers there were recently central to a massive project comparing cells in a key brain region in humans, mice and monkeys. They also released a high-resolution 3-D map showing the connections between 200,000 cells in a clump of mouse brain involved in vision, about as big as a grain of sand.
Scientists at the new institute will delve further, investigating how the brain cells and networks operate to guide behavior. The research could also lead to better understanding of neuropsychiatric conditions.
“We still do not understand how neurons in multiple brain areas work together to produce interesting behavior,” said Michael Stryker in the release. Stryker is a member of the Allen Institute’s Board of Directors and a neuroscientist at the University of California, San Francisco.
Stryker added: “This is a very challenging problem that needs to be pursued at a scale and with a level of long-term support not possible in most academic laboratories, making it the perfect project for the Allen Institute to tackle.”
In addition to the Brain Sciences and Neural Dynamics divisions, the Allen Institute is comprised of the Allen Institute for Cell Science, the Allen Institute for Immunology, and the Paul G. Allen Frontiers Group.
Funding for the Allen Institute is provided by the estate of Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, as well as a mix of federal and other private dollars. The new institute was approved by Allen before his death in 2018 according to Svoboda, a spokesperson told GeekWire.
Svoboda will officially begin his position as VP and executive director of the new division this January. He is also a long term member of the Allen Institute for Brain Science’s scientific advisory council.
