Leroy Hood has the kind demeanor of a kindergarten teacher. But his vocabulary belies his real identity: the most important inventor in modern biology.
Not that he's unconcerned about school kids. Hood has worked to make the science curriculum in Seattle-area K through 12 schools one of the best in the country. But the focus of his career, and the reason MIT has awarded him the $500,000 Lemelson-MIT Prize, is the invention of technologies that are the backbone of the life sciences today.
Hood's conversations are peppered with phrases like "DNA sequencing" and "oligonucleotide synthesis." They're not terms heard at most dinner tables, but at genetics conferences they're thrown around as casually as Britney Spears' name in a high school cafeteria. And they wouldn't exist without Hood's inventions.
Other winners of the Lemelson-MIT prize include geek heroes Dean Kamen and Ray Kurzweil. The prize is known as the Oscar for inventors, and is the largest single cash prize for invention.
"I'm ... surprised and delighted," Hood said. "Delighted because someone is honoring invention and innovation in biology -- an area that has been resistant to embrace technology. This is an affirmation of success over 35 years ... as well as about 30 superlative students I've had that made these things possible."
Hood will give the $500,000 to the Hood Family Foundation, which he and his wife established to support conservation education and science.
Hood's mentor at CalTech, William Dreyer, told him to "always practice biology at the leading edge -- and if you really want to change biology, develop a new technology for pushing back the frontiers of biological knowledge."
Dreyer likely didn't predict how successfully his protégé would follow that advice. Hood has invented four instruments that have helped scientists begin to unlock the mysteries of human life.
"Lee is probably the first biologist to grasp just how important new instrumentation would be to the further development of molecular and genomic biology," said Roger Brent, president and research director of the Molecular Science Institute. "Much of what scientists know about the molecules that make up living things depends directly and indirectly upon this work."
Starting in 1980, he developed the DNA-sequencing machine that led to the ability to map the human genome.
"Lee's contributions to modern molecular genetics are immeasurable," said Richard Wilson, professor of genetics and director of the Genome Sequencing Center at the Washington University School of Medicine, which contributes to the Human Genome Project.
"His vision, especially with regard to the role of automation of DNA and peptide sequencing and synthesis, are a big reason why we felt empowered in the mid-1980s to think about sequencing the human genome," Wilson said.
Hood also invented a machine to sequence proteins, which carry out genes' instructions. The other two machines he created synthesize proteins and DNA so that scientists can make large quantities to use as medicine or in research.
Using protein synthesis, Hood and his colleague Michael Hunkapiller, now the CEO of Applied Biosystems, were able to create large amounts of erythropoietin, a hormone that treats anemia by stimulating the production of red blood cells. Sold under the name EPO, the drug became the first billion-dollar seller in the biotech industry, and was a launching pad for Amgen, the largest biotech company in the country.
Hood helped start nine more biotechnology companies, including Systemix, Darwin Molecular (now part of Celltech) and Rosetta Inpharmatics.
It's not always a popular idea with ivory tower academics, but Hood believes the key to developing the fruits of biotechnology is for industry to pick up scientific advancement where academia leaves off.
"My central tenet is that one of the fundamental objectives an academic has is to transfer the knowledge we gain to society," Hood said. "The idea of academics being isolated and disdainful of those involved in private endeavors is precisely the wrong point of view."
"With each of the companies I've been involved with, there has been the transfer of intellectual property and knowledge," Hood said, "and I've contributed over time to making these companies succeed so they could bring these things to society. Look how much money society spends on science -- I would argue we have an obligation to give back."
Hood's colleagues agree that Hood has worked to do just that throughout his career.
"No single person has done more to create the genomics era than Leroy Hood," said Michael Phelps, professor and chair of the department of molecular and medical pharmacology at the University of California School of Medicine. In a letter of recommendation for Hood to the Lemelson-MIT prize committee, he said, "He has not only done great science, but has created new science through which many will create new knowledge to the benefit of all mankind."
Hood's latest venture is the Institute for Systems Biology, which he launched in 2000. As president of the institute, he brings together the best and brightest in biology, as well as in other disciplines such as physics, chemistry and engineering.
"Systems biology is an approach where you study all of the elements in a system (such as a cell) and their relationship one to another, as you cause the system to function," Hood said. "That stands in contrast with what's been done in the past 30 years, where we study one gene or protein at a time."
A multidisciplinary approach, Hood believes, will lead to the Holy Grail of biology: predicting what will happen in the human body and preventing things from going wrong.
With predictive medicine, doctors will be able to detect the genes that make humans vulnerable to diseases like cancer and heart problems, he said. The next step, preventative medicine, will allow doctors to identify the problem gene and create drugs that will block its effects.
"In the next 10 years you'll see an ushering in of the field of predictive medicine," Hood said. "Not curative drugs, but preventive drugs."
