Access

news feature

Nature 410, 140-143 (8 March 2001) | doi:10.1038/35065828

Open Innovation Challenges

  • Single-cell Analysis Platform

    • Deadline: Dec 02 2009
    • Reward: $5,000 USD

    This Challenge is looking for novel approaches to analyzing changes at a single-cell level. This is...

  • Optimizing Sub-cellular Localization Tags

    • Deadline: Jan 31 2010
    • Reward: $20,000 USD

    The Seeker is looking for methods to optimize sub-cellular localization tags for protein expression....

Biomedical philanthropy, Silicon Valley style

Trisha Gura1

Top

Entrepreneurs who made their fortunes in high technology are now giving money away to fund biomedical research. These new philanthropists are sending a breath of fresh air through the labs they support, says Trisha Gura.

In the early 1990s, Ben Barres wanted to explore a wild idea: could a long-ignored type of cell play a major role in building the brain's neural circuitry? At the time, most neurobiologists thought these glial cells provided little more than physical support for the brain's neurons.