About
2025: The Open Brain Institute
Founded in 2025 by Henry Markram, the Open Brain Institute (OBI) is committed to accelerating and democratizing neuroscience research by embracing open science and fostering global collaboration.
Henry Markram
Built on two decades of pioneering work from the Blue Brain Project, the OBI operates the Open Brain Platform, a cloud-based infrastructure that integrates cutting-edge modeling, simulation, and data analysis tools originally developed by Blue Brain. The Open Brain Platform also serves as a comprehensive repository of high-fidelity digital brain models, capturing the intricate complexity of brain tissue across multiple scales.
Through its commitment to transparency and global knowledge-sharing, the OBI aims to promote and advance open science by empowering researchers with powerful tools and data, enabling them to conduct realistic simulations, test hypotheses, and gain deeper insights into neural circuits and brain function.
The Real Digital Brain Story
It took over two decades of research and development, involving 18 million lines of code, to create the sophisticated software ecosystem that allows the simulation and creation of digital brains.
Our Foundations: Blue Brain
The Blue Brain Project was a pioneering scientific initiative hosted at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL). Supported by nearly 300 million CHF investment from the Swiss Federal Government, the project successfully completed its mission in December 2024, spanning two decades of research to work out how to build biologically accurate digital replica of the brain and begin simulation neuroscience. The project's legacy includes around 300 peer-reviewed publications, featuring more than 1'100 co-authors, and more than a petabyte of data, comprising millions of neuronal morphologies, electrophysiological recordings, and meticulously detailed digital brain models across multiple scales. With more than 18 million lines of code made available in around 290 open GitHub repositories, the project has delivered the tools to build, simulate, analyze, and visualize biologically accurate digital brain models, paving the way for a new era of simulation neuroscience.
Browse our portals
The Neocortical Microcircuit Collaboration Portal
The Neuro-Glia-Vasculature Portal
The Hippocampus Hub
The Blue Brain Cell Atlas
Channelpedia
The SSCx Portal
The Thalamus Studio
The Topological Sampling Data Studio
We thank all Blue Brain collaborators and contributors
We thank our 1,100+ collaborators and contributors whose dedication, innovation, and expertise made the Blue Brain Project possible. Over two decades, this pioneering initiative has revolutionized neuroscience, laying the foundation for biologically accurate digital brain modeling and the field of simulation neuroscience.
With approximately 300 peer-reviewed publications, more than a petabyte of neuroscience data, and 18 million lines of open-source code across nearly 290 GitHub repositories, this collective effort has created a lasting legacy, providing tools to build, simulate, analyze, and visualize digital brain models, empowering researchers worldwide to push the boundaries of discovery.
To all who contributed, we express our deepest gratitude for shaping the future of neuroscience and pioneering a new era of brain research.
