Allen Institute for Brain Science takes big step towards mapping Human Brain

The Allen Institute for Brain Science was founded over a decade ago and is backed by $500 million from Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen.

Today, the institute said that it has launched a new database that has marked a major step towards creating a comprehensive map of the human brain, called the Allen Cell Types Database.

In the philanthropist’s 10-year plan, it is first initiative to untangle the intricacies of human thoughts and actions. This would also be helpful in unlocking the mysteries behind some of the brain’s most debilitating diseases.

The Allen Cell Types Database has information about 240 neurons found in the brains of mice, the cells that are similar to those in the human brain.

That data has information about the neurons’ electrical activity and ‘morphology’, or shape, as well as their location.

Scientists have planned to use the data to understand how normal brains work, which in turn might help them in solving diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.

Furthermore, it’s not only diseases of cognition that the Allen Institute wants to help cure, as the foundation has simultaneously released an update to its Ivy Glioblastoma Atlas Project, a tool, providing detailed genetic information about one of the brain’s deadliest cancers.

Allan Jones, CEO of the Allen Institute, which is based in Seattle, said, “This is part of a substantial plan in the global scheme of [brain research]. We want to map the entire brain in terms of cell types”.

The Allen Institute was founded in 2003 with an aim to provide scientific data, free to the public, designed to speed up the understanding of both the healthy and diseased brain.

The foundation has created many brain atlases, searchable online data warehouses of the spinal cord, the developing human and mouse brains, and more.