Washington Post: On Monday, Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen announced that he would be providing $100 million to help establish an "industrial-scale" effort to advance the understanding of human cells. The Allen Institute for Cell Science will be based in Seattle, Washington, and will be led by Rick Horwitz, formerly of the University of Virginia. Allen says the goal of the institute will be to create a visual database of cells and a predictive model of cellular behavior. Allen believes that while significant progress has been made in understanding the genetic components of diseases, less progress has been made in connecting that knowledge with the effects on cells. The institute's focus will initially be on induced pluripotent stem cells, which are derived from adult tissue and believed to be able to transform into any other form of human cell.
