Unlocking the mysteries of the brain
The human brain is what makes us who we are. It’s also arguably the most complex structure in all of biology. We believe that to truly understand the brain, we must study it on multiple scales, from the genes that make individual neurons unique to the circuits that drive behavior. We map the brain through comprehensive atlases that we share with the global neuroscience community to accelerate their work. And we study the mouse and human brain, at several levels, to understand how it works and what goes wrong in disease.
Our neuroscience research falls into three broad categories: We describe the fundamental parts of the brain, its cells, synapses and circuits. We study the brain’s computation, how those parts come together to represent information about our environment. Ultimately, we aim to understand cognition itself, or how the millions of different molecules and electrical synapses that crisscross the brain translate into thoughts, memories, behavior.
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Our Impact
See how researchers around the world are using our publicly available data and resources.
Our Team
The Allen Institute for Brain Science is comprised of neuroscientists, researchers, engineers, data analysts, software engineers and more working together to better understand the brain.