Leroy Hood

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Leroy Hood is an American biologist. He won the 2003 Lemelson-MIT Prize for inventing "four instruments that have unlocked much of the mystery of human biology" by helping decode the genome. Hood also won the 2002 Kyoto Prize for Advanced Technology, and the 1987 Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research. His inventions include the automated DNA sequencer, a device to create proteins and an automated tool for synthesizing DNA. Hood co-founded the Institute for Systems Biology.

[edit] Biography

Dr. Leroy Hood was born October 10, 1938 in Missoula, Montana. He is recognized as one of the world's leading scientists in molecular biotechnology and genomics. He holds numerous patents and awards for his scientific breakthroughs and prides himself on his life-long commitment to making science accessible and understandable to the general public, especially children. One of this foremost goals is bringing hands-on, inquiry-based science to K-12 classrooms.

Hood was also a founding member of Amgen.

Dr. Hood earned an M.D. From Johns Hopkins University in 1964 and a Ph.D. in biochemistry from the California Institute of Technology in 1968. Since then, his research has focused on the study of molecular immunology and biotechnology. Dr. Hood has published more than 500 peer-reviewed papers, received 12 patents, and co-authored textbooks in biochemistry, immunology, molecular biology, and genetics, and is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Philosophical Society and the American Association of Arts and Sciences. Hood received a D.Sc. from Bates College in 1999.

His professional career began at Caltech where he and his colleagues pioneered four instruments--the DNA gene sequence and synthesizer, and the protein synthesizer and sequencer--which comprise the technological foundation for contemporary molecular biology. In particular, the DNA sequencer has revolutionized genomics by allowing the rapid automated sequencing of DNA. Dr. Hood was also one of the first advocates of and is a key player in the Human Genome Project--the quest to decipher the sequence of the human DNA. He also played a pioneering role in deciphering the secrets of antibody diversity.

In 1992, Dr. Hood moved to the University of Washington to create the cross-disciplinary Department of Molecular Biotechnology. In his role as the William Gates, III Professor of Biomedical Science, Dr. Hood applied his laboratory expertise in DNA sequencing to the analysis of human and mouse immune receptors and initiated studies in prostate cancer, autoimmunity, and hematopoietic stem cell development.

In 2000, Dr. Hood co-founded the Institute for Systems Biology in Seattle, Washington to pioneer systems approaches to biology and medicine. He serves as President of the Institute and continues to pursue his interest in biology, medicine, technology, development, and computational biology.

Dr. Hood has played a role in founding numerous biotechnology companies, including Amgen, Applied Biosystems, Systemix, Darwin, Rosetta, and MacroGenics.

In 2006, Dr. Hood won the Wharton Infosys Business Transformation Award for his society-transforming use of information technology. He was honored for his earlier inventions and the progress they enabled as well as his more recent work in systems biology.