Vol. 9, No. 4, 2003 Page 6
Paul Allen, co-creator of Microsoft, is contributing 100 million dollars to a scientific project to map the genes that affect brain development and function. Says Mark Boguski, Director of the new Allen Institute for Brain Science, the Human Genome Project identified all of the genes in the human genome, but did not reveal the function of each. "It's like opening a box filled with parts to build two tables and there are 30,000 parts and no instructions," he says." The Institute plans to determine the function of each of the approximately 20,000 genes believed to be involved in the development and function of the brain.