Microsoft Co-Founder's Brain Institute Attracts Top Academic Researchers - People - The Chronicle of Higher Education

"Five hundred million dollars can buy a lot of basic scientific research. Last month, Paul G. Allen, who founded Microsoft with Bill Gates, announced that he would give the Allen Institute for Brain Science, in Seattle, an additional $300-million, on top of $200-million he had already donated since 2003 to establish and run the facility. With that infusion, the institute is luring some of the country's leading neuroscientists....[Ricardo Dolmetsch, an associate professor of neurobiology at Stanford University] said university- and government-financed labs cannot afford the personnel and equipment to perform the multidisciplinary work that Mr. Allen wishes to encourage. Institute scientists expect to make their findings available to researchers around the world via freely accessible online databases...."