Philanthropist Paul Allen announces 100 million gift to expand 'frontiers of bioscience'

Billionaire philanthropist Paul Allen has announced a 100 million commitment over 10 years to fund scientific endeavors at the "frontiers of bioscience" that he describes as having major implications for humankind. An initial set of grants, announced Wednesday, will go to Stanford and Tufts universities for the creation of new research centers and to individual scientists with unconventional approaches to projects in tissue regeneration, antibiotic resistance, gene editing and the development of brain circuitry. Allen said his commitment grew out of a realization that the biological sciences are at a critical point in history, with technology now able to take the field in a more quantitative direction than ever before. New tools can manipulate DNA, next-generation microscopes measure and create images of the tiniest parts of living systems, and super-powerful computers are able to make sense of massive amounts of data. "What I believe is that this is potentially a game-changer for our understanding of complex biological systems," Allen said.