Distinguished Speaker Lecture
Leroy Hood to give the Distinguished Speaker lecture at ESHG 2008
Each year the ESHG strives to have an outstanding scientist to deliver a lecture that captures some of the excitement that is associated with the study of genetics and genomics at the forefront of science.
We are pleased to announce that after Nobel Prize winners Sydney Brenner in 2006, and Aaron Ciechanover in 2007, another exciting speaker has agreed to give the 2008 Distinguished Speaker lecture.
This year’s lecture will be given by a pioneer of the new technologies that are now driving genetic discoveries, notably the DNA sequencer. Leroy Hood spent much of his career at Caltech where he and his collaborators were involved in the development of 4 key technologies - the DNA gene sequencer and synthesizer, and the protein synthesizer and sequencer - which comprise the technological foundation for contemporary molecular biology.
In 2002 Leroy Hood co-founded the Institute for Systems Biology in Seattle, which aims to understand complex systems, especially life, from knowledge of the interactions of their component parts.
Dr Hood has received many distinguished awards during his career. Notably, Leroy Hood is the winner of the 1987 Lasker Award for fundamental contributions to the understanding of immune diversity, and of other prestigious prizes for his contributions to the development of technologies for genetic innovation including the automated DNA sequencer. These include the 2005 Heinz Award, the 2003 Lemelson-MIT Prize for Invention and Innovation, the 2002 Kyoto Award. Dr Hood was elected to the Inventors Hall of Fame (for the automated DNA sequencer) in 2007.
For more information see:
Interview with Dr. Leroy Hood
by Mary Rice
Dr. Leroy Hood is the co-founder and President of the Institute of Systems Biology, Seattle, USA. He will be giving the Distinguished Speaker Lecture at ESHG 2008 on Tuesday, June 3, 2008 at 13.15 hrs.
Dr. Hood will talk to the conference about how he views systems biology and its application to disease. He spoke to Mary Rice about his work, and his life both in and outside science.
“I will tell the conference about a systems study of prion disease and liver toxicity in mice and how these approaches lead to new ways to view diagnosis, therapy and eventually prevention. My view is that this systems approach to disease coupled with new measurement and visualization technologies, and powerful new computational and mathematical tools for capturing, storing, mining, integrating and finally modelling large data sets together with phenotypic measurements will lead to a revolution in medicine, replacing our currently largely reactive medicine with one that is predictive, personalised, preventive and participatory.”
Dr. Hood remembers that he enjoyed science from an early age. “I suspect that this was in part because I enjoyed reading about it. I loved fiction and read widely in science, science fiction, and adventure stories. I remember for five or so years being fascinated with planes and my fervent desire was to become a pilot, until a respected mathematics teacher in about the 5th grade, who had flown planes in World War II, told me that being a pilot was much like being a truck driver. My vocational interests quickly shifted toward science”, he says.
Hood had started on the path that would lead him to become one of the best known scientists in molecular biotechnology and genomics. His professional career started at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), where he and his colleagues developed most of the instruments that laid the technical foundation for modern molecular biology; the automated DNA sequencer and synthesiser, and the protein synthesiser and sequencer. “In one afternoon we conceptually figured out how to develop automated fluorescent DNA sequencing.”
But putting these discoveries into wider use was much more difficult. “The president of Caltech said that they were not interested in commercialising anything but that, if I wished, I could attempt to commercialise these four instruments myself. I went to 19 companies with the fully developed protein sequencer and a vision of the three other instruments (the DNA and protein synthesisers and the DNA sequencer) and how collectively they would transform biology. Not one of the 19 companies I visited was interested, and one of them turned me down three times and told me not to come back.”
Disillusioned, Hood pondered what to do next. “Then I got a call from a venture capitalist in San Francisco, who said that he had heard I was shopping my instruments unsuccessfully and that he would give me $2 million to start a company. I was ecstatic. Shortly thereafter, I gave a lecture to the Caltech trustees on the vision of how our four instruments would change the world of biology. Ironically, one of the Trustees, Arnold Beckman, came up to me afterwards and said, “This is fascinating. It is just what my company needs.” I pointed out that his company had already turned me down three times.”
Hood used the money to start the company that became Applied Biosystems, which is today the world leader in molecular instrumentation.
In early 1985, Hood was invited, together with eleven other scientists, to the first ever meeting on the Human Genome Project. “Robert Sinsheimer, Chancellor of the University of California at Santa Cruz, was considering creating an institute to sequence the human genome and he sought expert advice. The 12 of us debated for one and a half days and came to two conclusions. First, it would be feasible, although technically challenging, to sequence the human genome; and second, we were evenly split on whether or not it would be a good idea.” Hood was excited by the idea. “I felt that it held out enormous promise for human health, for it was a tool for discovering genetically defective genes, the first step toward understanding their roles in disease and how to overcome their defective functioning—moving us toward what I have come to call predictive, personalised and preventive medicine.”
In spite of all this promise, between 1985 and 1990, most biologists vehemently opposed the Human Genome Project. “I remember giving many lectures on its enormous potential and responding throughout this time to many hostile questions,” says Hood. Most biologists felt that since only 2% of the genome was presumably genes, it was a waste of time and money to sequence the entire genome. Moreover, since the Human Genome Project was not hypothesis-driven, most biologists felt it was not real science. “It was pejoratively termed stamp collecting or a fishing expedition. The opponents totally failed to understand the power of what I call ‘discovery science’.
After eight years at the University of Washington, where he created the cross-disciplinary Department of Molecular Biotechnology, in 2000 Hood co-founded the Institute for Systems Biology in Seattle. “I had been thinking about systems biology, which advocates studying all the elements in a system rather than studying one gene or one protein at a time, since the mid-1980s. In the Institute we were doing something completely new, involving a cross-disciplinary faculty of biologists, computer scientists, chemists, engineers, mathematicians, and physicists. A major challenge was to give the technologists a deep understanding of biology and vice versa, and to ensure that they shared a common language, so that the technologies could be integrated with biology and medicine. “This required new approaches to teaching, and our view of how to carry out systems biology posed other serious challenges, both for academia and industry,” says Hood.
Managing science has been a bigger challenge that science itself, he says. And yet be has excelled in this field too, playing a role in founding numerous biotechnology companies in addition to the Institute for Systems Biology, where he remains President.
Hood says that he is proudest of “how well the superb colleagues who trained with me have done. I am also very proud of helping to decipher the mechanisms of antibody diversity, for which I received the Lasker Award in 1987.”
If he hadn’t been a scientist, with the benefit of hindsight he would like to have been a writer. “I’ve always been interested in writing and I do a lot of reading, both fiction and non-fiction. I like the outdoors and enjoy mountaineering, hiking, sea kayaking etc. My maternal grandfather had a ranch in the Beartooth Mountains of south-western Montana where I spent much of my boyhood. There I learned to ride horses and to climb rugged mountains. I also like exercise and run and lift weights most days. I have found that my best scientific ideas have often come while running; it is the one time during the day when I can think in an uninterrupted manner on a focused topic for an hour or more.”
Although Hood will be 70 in October, he has no plans to retire. “I like doing science and plan to continue doing so for the indefinite future. I still have a lot to do.”