We first created the Allen Institute to propel brain science forward, knowing that top scientists working together to tackle big challenges would change the world. From there, we knew there were so many other bold science questions worth asking so the Institute rapidly evolved. Our commitment to sharing knowledge and collaborating across scientific disciplines is at the core of what we do. Twenty years in, I’m so proud of the global reach and enduring impact the Allen Institute continues to deliver, and how our discoveries and insights are helping advance the critical work of so many scientists around the world.
Jody Allen Chair of the Board of Directors, Allen Institute
understandinglife advancinghealth
At the Allen Institute this is more than just a slogan, it’s the heartbeat of what we do. We tackle the big foundational questions in life sciences by building creative and interdisciplinary teams that aim to answer them with complete, accurate and permanent knowledge. To achieve exponential impact in our research, we openly share our data, tools, and knowledge with the world. Big science, team science, and open science have been our bedrock for 20 years of discovery. This approach has transformed our understanding of the brain, our immune system, and our cells. It has also paved the way for understanding disease, from Alzheimer’s and autism to cancer and COVID. The impact of our next 20 years will be even more profound. We live in a rapidly changing world, and we face incredible challenges: the impact of climate change on life, global pandemics, mental health, and aging, just to name a few. While these are all daunting, we know that our foundational approach to science, collaboration, and the sharing of knowledge can make a difference. As we start to address these challenges with new techniques and technologies, we enter an era where biological data is unprecedented in complexity and size. Artificial intelligence and data-driven discovery will help us crack some of the most vexing bioscience mysteries and
advance health and humanity. Similarly, synthetic biology will give us new ways to record what happens inside of living cells, and eventually intervene when people become ill. Finally, technologies we first invented to study the brain are now being used to deliver gene therapies to specific cells not only in the central nervous system, but anywhere in the body, giving new hope to patients living with presently incurable diseases. These are but a few of the ways we’re boldly working to understand life, advance health, and drive lasting impact for generations to come. As the Allen Institute charts this new course of scientific discovery, we know that the success of our journey will be determined by the creativity, ingenuity, and tenacity of those who join the voyage. Like the pioneering explorers who came before us, together we can go farther and have even greater impact.
Rui Costa, D.V.M., Ph.D. President and Chief Executive Officer, Allen Institute
Image: Classification of ~4 million single cells based on their gene expression patterns into different cell types of the adult mouse brain.
When history tries to identify how big progress events occurred, about this time in our history of the world, it’s organizations like Allen Institute that will be identified as having played a critical catalytic role. Francis Collins, M.D., Ph.D. Former Director, National Institutes of Health
Image: Charting the brainwide trajectories of individual neurons using the ExA-SPIM microscope.
askanything changeeverything The Allen Institute is a non-profit research organization that brings together a global community of scientists, physicians, engineers, computer scientists, thinkers, educators, and entrepreneurs – all working to solve the biggest mysteries in bioscience. Leading through action and example, the Institute takes on ‘moon shot projects’ in life sciences that have been unaddressed to date, and answers them with complete, accurate, and permanent knowledge. To achieve this, we stand interdisciplinary teams with sustained support, build new tools and technologies to push the frontiers of what is possible in science, and then apply them in a transformative way. We make it happen. Founded in 2003 by philanthropist Paul G. Allen, who sought to push the limits of human exploration in science, the Allen Institute is based in Seattle with operations growing around the world. The mission of the Institute is to understand the principles that govern life and to advance health. We accelerate foundational research, catalyze bold ideas, develop tools and models, and openly share our science to make a broad, transformational impact on the world. Our multidisciplinary approach to tackling largescale research, and our commitment to open science, serve as the bedrock for accelerating discovery and advancing the frontiers of human health.
Allen Institute
Fast Facts FOUNDED BY
Paul G. Allen
Est’d. 2003 | Seattle HQ Completed in 2015 | Certified LEED Gold
BIG DATA
300 Petabytes
• Allen Brain Map RESEARCH DATA UNDER MANAGEMENT
EQUAL TO
10.8
KNOWN FOR
TRILLION FACEBOOK PHOTOS
• Allen Brain Cell Atlas • Seattle Alzheimer’s Disease Brain Cell Atlas • Allen Cell Explorer • Human Immune System Explorer
800+ Employees
273 PhDs 184 Research Associates 34 Scientific Disciplines
AND GROWING
OUR SCIENTIFIC UNITS Allen Institute
for Brain Science
120
Allen Institute
for Cell Science Allen Institute
for Immunology
MICROSCOPES Custom and commercial
Allen Institute
for Neural Dynamics The Paul G. Allen
Frontiers Group
Open Science
Team Science
Big Science
Making all our resources available to the global community to accelerate discovery
Embracing a collaborative approach across all divisions, where unique perspectives and diverse experiences contribute to solving the scientific challenges we face
Tackling largescale, ambitious projects that yield rich, robust data and new knowledge
big, team, open — science done differently
the Allen Institute enables transformational research through its commitment to four core principles
Image: Fluorescent neurons in a mouse brain captured in 3D with nanoscale resolution.
Image: The visualization tool AGAVE allows illumination of 3D microscope images to create easy-to-understand image depth.
openscience Making all our resources freely available to the global community to accelerate discovery. We believe in open science for • Allen Institute online data and resources have been accessed the benefit of humanity. This millions of times by scientists requires storing, organizing, and and clinicians, and also by giving access to an unprecedented industry, educators and students amount of data. From online portals to publications and • More than 3,000 researchers from more than 100 countries beyond, we openly share our visit our open data portals knowledge, tools, technology, each and every day and data around the world because shared understanding • As of 2023, people have spent 235,300 hours, or almost feeds new discoveries and 27 years, watching the plethora of nurtures breakthroughs. talks, trainings, and webinars on the Allen YouTube channel (that’s all content on Netflix times six!)
I firmly believe in the Institute’s core principles of pursuing big quests using team and open science. My goal is to further this style of science into a new era of discovery and impact. Knowledge and science have the power to transform societies. Rui Costa, D.V.M., Ph.D. President and Chief Executive Officer, Allen Institute
bigscience Tackling large-scale, ambitious projects that yield rich, robust data and new knowledge, to impact health and humanity. We focus on answering some of the biggest foundational questions in bioscience, many of which can’t be carried out in traditional research settings. This offers the potential of faster, farther-reaching solutions to extremely challenging problems. We integrate data with sophisticated technology so that it can be shared with the global scientific community for exploration and analysis.
• 300 petabytes – the amount of research data currently under management • 50 petabytes – the amount of data generated in 2023 (equivalent to 1.8 trillion photos on Facebook) • 60% - the current size of our data compared to that of CERN’s Large Hadron Collider • 70 – the number of machine learning models developed in-house to date
The combination of recent advances in computation and AI with the Allen Institute’s large datasets can transform our understanding of the brain, the immune system, and our cells. The prospect of leveraging the very latest in large-scale AI and machine learning techniques, to support life-changing scientific breakthroughs, is truly inspiring. Andy Hickl Chief Technology Officer, Allen Institute
Image: Illustration on the integration of data from 100,000s of cells, to understand the intracellular organization and its variations in human stem cells.
teamscience Embracing collaboration, where unique perspectives and diverse experiences help solve the world’s grand scientific challenges. We believe that science is at its best when scientists come together to solve problems. Rather than individuals working on siloed projects, our multidisciplinary teams work together in collaboration, bringing unique perspectives and diverse experiences to the scientific challenges we face.
This spirit of collaboration extends beyond the walls of our institute. We also work hand-in-hand with expert researchers and organizations from around the world, allowing scientific discovery to flourish.
This is evidenced by our published research studies. Where studies from most research teams have just a few authors, at the Allen Institute, it’s not uncommon to have more than one-hundred authors working on a single paper.
The Allen Institute is a foundation for science for everybody, everywhere. Computer science, biology, and engineering, pulling it all together. Collaboration is what leads to big discoveries. Ana Mari Cauce, Ph.D. President, University of Washington
impact Building foundations and reaching new frontiers in our quest to fully understand the brain, the cell, and the immune system. Our research and data are empowering scientists near and far to pursue bold solutions to the most pressing issues affecting humanity. Before the founding of the Allen Institute, the concept of massive open-access data portals and scientists freely sharing their research data before publishing their own study was virtually unheard of. Our Allen Brain Map – the largest, richest, and most accessible brain data portal in the world – altered the course of neuroscience and spawned an open science revolution. We’ve gone on to create equally robust open databases for human cells – the Allen Cell Explorer, and the human immune system – the Human Immune System Explorer. The impact of these foundational resources has been profound, allowing researchers across the globe to make new discoveries that improve life for us all.
We’re now expanding our impact into the classroom, giving students from elementary school to the college level rich, hands-on learning experiences. Students of today will be the scientists of tomorrow. By sparking imagination and nurturing curiosity, we’re planting the seeds of future scientific discovery. 5,400+ scientific paper citations of the Allen Mouse Brain Atlas • Researchers around the world use this atlas daily to make key advancements in Alzheimer’s, autism, depression, dementia and more From January through September 2023, our Education & Engagement program reached: • 12,000 lesson plan downloads • 500+ high school and college students through field trips and career panels at the Allen Institute, and visits to local high schools
Image: UMAP and dendrogram of the brain - two different abstractive representations of brain cell types.
I’m so excited about the Allen Institute’s incredible research and the countless innovations and discoveries that have been made here—their open science approach has truly been transformative. There’s great energy at the Institute, and just walking around, you can feel everyone’s passion for their work. The Allen Institute has accomplished so much over the last twenty years and I’m proud to advocate for them from the other Washington. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA)
This facility says a lot about how we’re tackling some of the biggest challenges in science. We’re tackling them together as a team. Paul G. Allen Founder, Allen Institute
sharing in discovery Our work is revealing insights into what makes us healthy and what causes disease, and we’re enabling researchers around the world to do the same — leading to new ways to prevent, monitor, diagnose, and treat with greater precision.
Alzheimer’s We’re investigating how Alzheimer’s disease starts and progresses so we can develop ways to stop it. Cell by cell, scientists are building a high-resolution map of brain changes in Alzheimer’s disease. This approach could ultimately identify new targets for better therapies to slow or halt the disease’s progression, by preventing these specific cell populations from dying.
The more scientists that take innovative approaches to try to understand the disease, the more likely it is that we’re going to find those drug targets and develop drugs that will be effective. C. Dirk Keene, M.D., Ph.D., Professor and Nancy and Buster Alvord Endowed Chair of Neuropathology, UW Medicine
Image: Human tonsil, a key site for initiation of immune responses to oral pathogens.
Cancer When they’re working optimally, our immune systems regularly detect and eliminate pre-cancerous cells. But cancer has many ways to evade and subvert normal immune responses and sometimes slips past these many-layered control systems. Researchers at the Allen Institute are working to uncover the immunological malfunctions that underlie the blood cancer multiple myeloma and the skin cancer melanoma. By unmasking how cancer begins in the human body, we can identify points of intervention and ways to treat this disease.
Autoimmune Diseases When the immune system becomes overactive, it attacks the very thing it is supposed to protect: our bodies. Diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis or inflammatory bowel disease trigger painful and debilitating symptoms - our studies are providing insights that will lead to new, more effective treatments.
Since the creation of the Institute for Immunology in 2018, we have developed cutting-edge technologies that allow an unprecedented understanding of the human immune system in both health and disease. Peter Skene, Ph.D. Director of High-Resolution Translational Immunology, Allen Institute
COVID-19 Our scientists are probing the mysteries of COVID-19 and how our immune systems respond to keep us healthy. They’re also working to define the molecular signatures of long COVID, a debilitating and chronic side effect of infection that affects 10 to 30% of COVID patients.
Human Brain Cell Atlases What makes us human? Detailed cellular maps of the entire human brain have revealed clues in the first draft of the largest human brain cell atlases created to date, recently published by the Allen Institute and international partners.
I view this as a pivotal moment in neuroscience, where new technologies are now allowing us to understand the very detailed cellular organization of the human brain and of other primate brains. Ed Lein, Ph.D. Senior Investigator, Allen Institute for Brain Science
Image: A network of cortical neurons whose connection were traced from a multi-terabyte 3D dataset.
Join us in the future of the Allen Institute. The first step toward understanding any disease—from Alzheimer’s to cancer, arthritis, addiction, and beyond—is to deeply understand the foundational science behind it.
Accelerating science, by openly sharing our knowledge with the world, is how we unlock treatments and cures.
Genetic tools
Aging
IMMUNOTHERAPY
Parkinson’s disease
Cell Biology
Nervous system health
MENTAL HEALTH
AI
Neurodegeneration
Synthetic Biology
Leukemias BIOENGINEERING
Epilepsy
joinus Join us as we stand at a pivotal moment of scientific opportunity. In embracing the extraordinary — pushing the boundaries of knowledge and technology, through big, team, and open science. In pursuing the most significant challenges of our time — making the unknown, known and giving us hope for a better tomorrow. Join us on this journey of understanding life and advancing health.
The challenges we face as a society also present incredible opportunities to collaborate in improving human health globally. Through engaging in new partnerships, locally and globally, with individuals, organizations, not for profits, industry and communities the Allen Institute will accelerate our shared understanding of life. Supporting the translation of discoveries into tangible health benefits and advances. Helen Protheroe Executive Director, Global Partnerships and Philanthropy, Allen Institute
20 YEARS O
FRONTIERS GROUP
OF IMPACT