Cell Science 2016 Year in Review
December 15, 2016
In 2016, the Allen Institute for Cell Science kicked off its inaugural project to understand the organization and shapes of major structures inside both undifferentiated human stem cell and in derived heart muscle cells. Here are some highlights from the past year.
We launched the Allen Cell Collection.
In November, we debuted the Allen Cell Collection: the first publicly available collection of gene edited, fluorescently tagged human induced pluripotent stem cells that target key cellular structures with unprecedented clarity. Distributed through the Coriell Institute for Medical Research, these powerful tools are a crucial first step toward visualizing the dynamic organization of cells to better understand what makes human cells healthy and what goes wrong in disease.
We ignited the community.
We hosted our first Cell Science Symposium, an open house showcasing Seattle-area cell biology research. Over 200 members of the scientific community came to present their current work in talks and posters and to engage with researchers at the Allen Institute for Cell Science.
We made an impression on our advisory council members, a group of distinguished scientists from across cell biology who have become some of our heartiest ambassadors.
We also left Seattle to attend numerous conferences and events, including ASCB, where we gave talks, presented posters and hosted a booth to talk about our latest products and future plans.
We assembled our team.
Our newly minted directors put together each of their teams and worked together to establish the data collection pipeline.
We made the news.
Executive Director Rick Horwitz published an article on interdisciplinary team science in cell biology in Trends in Cell Biology and discussed the state of cellular biophysics our systems approach to imaging and modeling in the Biophysical Journal.
Rick Horwitz also co-authored an article with Tony Hyman of the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology & Genetics on the "Cell Biology of the Stem Cell" for the ASCB newsletter.
Our announcement of the Allen Cell Collection was also featured in numerous news outlets.
- NPR - Glowing Human Cells May Shed Light On Sickness And Health
- STAT: Boston Globe - Glow-in-the-dark nucleii for sale
- Forbes - How Paul Allen's Foray Into Gene Editing Could Benefit Human Health
- GeekWire - CRISPR in color: Allen Institute edits genes to create color-coded stem cells
- KING 5 - Allen Institute reveals fluorescent cell collection
We fostered team science.
Throughout our growth this year, we made team science a foundational part of our work.