Rate My Professor Leroy Hood

Leroy Hood is a distinguished biologist and pioneer in systems biology, genomics, and personalized medicine. He received his BS in Biology from the California Institute of Technology in 1960, an MD from The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in 1964, and a PhD in biochemistry from Caltech in 1967. Following a postdoctoral stint as Senior Investigator at the National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health from 1967 to 1970, Hood joined the Caltech faculty, rising to full professor in 1975 and serving as Chair of the Biology Division for a decade until 1992. There, he led the development of groundbreaking instruments including the automated DNA sequencer and synthesizer, which were pivotal to the Human Genome Project and revealed mechanisms of antibody diversification. In 1992, he founded and chaired the Department of Molecular Biotechnology at the University of Washington—the first academic department devoted to integrative, cross-disciplinary biology—until 2000.

In 2000, Hood co-founded the Institute for Systems Biology (ISB), serving as its President from 2000 to 2017, and continues as Professor and Chief Strategy Officer. He also holds the position of Chief Science Officer and Senior Vice President at Providence St. Joseph Health since 2016. His research focuses on Alzheimer’s disease, cancer, and wellness, spearheading a 1 million patient genome/phenome project to advance predictive, preventive, personalized, and participatory (P4) medicine. Hood has authored over 850 peer-reviewed publications, including highly cited works such as “Initial sequencing and analysis of the human genome” (2001), “A distinct lineage of CD4 T cells regulates tissue inflammation by producing interleukin 17” (2005), and “Integration of biological networks and gene expression data using Cytoscape” (2007). He holds 36 patents, co-authored textbooks on biochemistry, immunology, molecular biology, genetics, and systems biology, and founded 15 biotechnology companies including Amgen, Applied Biosystems, and NanoString Technologies. Among his numerous honors—one of only 20 individuals elected to the National Academy of Sciences (1982), National Academy of Engineering (2007), and National Academy of Medicine (2003)—are the National Medal of Science (2011), Kyoto Prize in Advanced Technology (2002), Lemelson-MIT Prize (2003), and NAS Award for Chemistry in Service to Society (2017). He has received 18 honorary degrees from leading universities.