Paul Allen gives 100 million to explore how cells work

SEATTLE After tackling the brain, the Ebola epidemic, and a host of other issues, billionaire Paul Allen has a new target for scientific philanthropy: unraveling the inner workings of human cells.

On Monday, the Microsoft co-founder announced a $100 million, five-year grant to establish the Allen Institute for Cell Science in Seattle.

The goal is to better understand the teeming world inside cells, where thousands of organelles and millions of molecules interact in a dynamic ballet that researchers are just beginning to fathom.

We really dont have a good idea of how normal cells work, and what goes wrong in disease, said Rick Horwitz, the former University of Virginia professor who jumped at the chance to lead the new institute. People spend careers trying to understand little parts of the cell, but nobody has stitched it together because its too complicated for any individual to study.

The institute will take on the challenge by combining new technologies, like microscopes that can visualize living cells in three dimensions, with enough computational firepower to make sense of the flood of data that will result, Horwitz said.

Eventually, he and his team hope to develop computer models that mimic living cells. If they succeed, those models could also shed light on what goes haywire in cancer and other diseases and help develop cures, he said.

At a time when federal research budgets are shrinking, the announcement is one of the most exciting things to happen in Seattle science in a long time, said Dr. Chuck Murry, co-director of the Institute for Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine at the University of Washington. When the Allen folks get into something, they do it at a scale thats just mind-blowing.

The grant is one of Allens largest, on par with the $100 million he committed earlier this year to fight Ebola in West Africa, and a $100 million grant in 2003 to establish the Seattle-based Allen Institute for Brain Science. He has since plowed an additional $300 million into the brain institute.

Allen, who joined his old partner Bill Gates in pledging to donate the bulk of his wealth, has stepped up his philanthropic efforts in recent years. Its a good bet he will continue investing in the cell institute as long as it measures up, said Allan Jones, who leads the Allen Institute for Brain Science and helped organize its new sister institute.

We need to knuckle down and show that we can deliver something very powerful, Jones said.

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Paul Allen gives 100 million to explore how cells work