We invite you to apply to attend our inaugural symposium featuring current Allen Distinguished Investigator Life Science award recipients.

The Life Science program of The Paul G. Allen Family Foundation is committed to funding scientific research that will impact the world around us. We fund fundamental science that pushes the boundaries of knowledge — innovative, creative research that often leads to major breakthroughs.

Launched in 1988 by Microsoft co-founder Paul G. Allen and his sister Jody Allen, The Paul G. Allen Family Foundation believes bold change is the catalyst for a better world. Allen Distinguished Investigators are typically awarded $1 to $1.5 million for three years of research.

Hear from these Allen Distinguished Investigator recipients, gathered together for this first-time symposium, on how their innovative research is making an impact on science today and in the future.

Presentations will feature various key award focus areas, including:

Cellular Decision-Making

• Thierry Emonet, Yale University; Thomas Shimizu, FOM Institute for Atomic and Molecular Physics; Steven Zucker, Yale University: Crowd Computing with Bacteria: Balancing Phenotypic Diversity and Coordinated Behavior
  
• Hana El-Samad, University of California, San Francisco: Untangling the Wires: An Integrated Framework for Probing Signal Encoding and Decoding in Cellular Circuits 
• Jeff Gore, Massachusetts Institute of Technology: Microbial Studies of Cellular Decision-making: Game Theory and the Evolutionary Origins of Cooperation
  
• Suckjoon Jun, University of California, San Diego: Cell-Size Control and its Evolution at the Single-Cell Level

Human Accelerated Regions

• Svante Pääbo, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology: Analysis of Positively Selected Genetic Changes Unique to Modern Humans
  
• Evan Eichler, University of Washington: Genetic Mutation of HARs and Human Neurocognition
  
• Christopher Walsh, Boston Children’s Hospital: Molecular and genetic analysis of human brain evolution

Medical Research – From Global Health and Neuroengineering to Whole Cell Modeling

• Bruce Chabner, Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center: Redefining Botswana lymphoma characterization, assessment, and treatment in Botswana
  
• Chet Moritz, University of Washington; Joshua Smith, University of Washington; Adrienne Fairhall, University of Washington: A Brain-Computer Interface to Reanimate the Limbs Following Spinal Injury: Development of a Brain-Computer-Spinal Interface
  
• Markus Covert, Stanford University: Towards Whole-Cell Models of Higher Organisms

Lineage Barcode

•  Jay Shendure, University of Washington ; Marshall Horwitz, University of Washington School of Medicine: Cell Lineage Defined by Mitotic Recombination
  
• Neil Kelleher, Northwestern University: Defining Protein Barcodes for Scanning Cells in Human Blood 
• Michael Elowitz, California Institute of Technology; Long Cai, California Institute of Technology: Tracking Cell Fate Decisions in Single Cells

Registration is limited. Please apply to attend by January 30, 2015.