Solving the mysteries of bioscience
Foundational Science Fuels Breakthroughs
Inspiring Next-Generation Scientists
Understanding the complexities of the brain by characterizing and mapping brain cells with unprecedented precision and scale.
Goals and Approach
How many brain cell types are there? What is their form, function, and how do they connect? Teams at the Allen Institute for Brain Science are working to answer these foundational neuroscience questions. By cataloguing and genetically profiling cell types of the brain with incredible precision and detail, we are working to improve our fundamental understanding of brain development, evolution, and disease.
Using a team science approach, we are exploring the mammalian brain at a molecular level and sharing our insights with the world. We do this through advanced single-cell molecular analysis techniques, such as single-cell RNA sequencing and electrophysiology, combined with cutting-edge imaging technologies that provide a comprehensive view of how our brains are organized; what their cellular makeup is; how those cells connect, develop, and function; and the complex relationship between these factors.
Meet our teams
Meet Our Advisors
12.09.2024
11.07.2024
10.18.2024
Brain Science Data Tools & Research Highlights
We’re defining and analyzing the different cells that make up the mammalian brain to better understand how our brains work, how they develop, and what goes wrong in disease. Using a big, team, and open science approach, we share our discoveries, data, and resources with the broader scientific community to catalyze breakthroughs.
Leading and organizing institute-wide efforts in deciphering the cellular and circuit organization of the mammalian brains, and how it changes in development, evolution, and diseases.
Meet the team
Driving breakthroughs in neuroscience through advanced computation, data management technologies and collaborative open data sharing
Establishing connections between morphoelectric characteristics and transcriptomic-defined cell types
Characterizing cellular diversity in the nervous system of humans and other mammals to study disease, evolution and brain function.
Exploring the diversity of cell types in the brain using a variety of microscopy and image processing techniques.
Leading an effort toward comprehensive molecular analysis of cell type identity in the mouse brain and building state-of-the-art transgenic and viral tools to experimentally access those cell types.
Investigating the cellular and circuit mechanisms underlying changes in cortical physiology with behavior.
Investigating the neuroanatomical architecture of the brain at the population and single cell level.
MEET THE TEAM
Neuron
Jun 05, 2024
Alex Piet, Nick Ponvert, Douglas Ollerenshaw, Marina Garrett, Peter A. Groblewski, Shawn Olsen, Christof Koch, Anton Arkhipov
Nature
Apr 24, 2024
Xiaoyin Chen, Stephan Fischer, Mara C. P. Rue, Aixin Zhang, Didhiti Mukherjee, Patrick O. Kanold, Jesse Gillis, Anthony M. Zador
Cold Spring Harbor Perspectives in Biology
Apr 15, 2024
Xiaoyin Chen
12.18.2024
07.28.2025 - 07.30.2025
Understanding life. Advancing health.
The Allen Institute is an independent nonprofit bioscience research institute aimed at unlocking the mysteries of biology.
We are leaders in large-scale research that transforms our understanding of health and disease and shapes how science is conducted worldwide.