The Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen has pledged $9.4-million to seven research teams pursuing unusual projects in brain science and biology, The Seattle Times writes.

The seven sets of “Allen Distinguished Investigators,” culled from 120 proposals to the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation, are working on projects unlikely to win grants from the National Institutes of Health and other major science institutions, said David Anderson, a California Institute of Technology neuroscientist.

Mr. Anderson got $1.6-million to search for genetic tags, markers some theorize can be used to identify brain cells that regulate emotional behavior. Another recipient, the Stanford University physicist and biologist Mark Schnitzer, received $880,000 to develop tiny microscopes that can observe signals between brain cells.