There’s something good to be said for making billions of dollars in the high-tech industry, especially when people such as Bill Gates and Paul Allen, co-founders of Microsoft, pledge to donate the bulk of their wealth.

Gates’ efforts are perhaps the most well-known, but Allen increasingly has been stepping up to fund scientific efforts. The latest is his $100 million, five-year grant to establish the Allen Institute for Cell Science.

It follows Allen’s $100 million to fight Ebola in West Africa and a $100 million grant in 2003 to establish the Allen Institute for Brain Science.

Studying the brain and cells is extraordinary complex. Little is understood of what goes on within cells, how normal cells work and what goes wrong that causes mutations that can lead to cancer.

Allen’s money has helped and will help bring scientists and researchers to Seattle to, we hope, unravel the mysteries of who we are and how we function.

— Craig Groshart, Bellevue Reporter