Systems biology innovator to present seminar at ASU
Seminar will be live streamed at live.biodesign.asu.edu.
Leroy Hood, a pioneer in the systems approach to biology and medicine, will present a seminar Jan. 30 at Arizona State University. Hood’s talk, which is free and open to the public, will be held 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., in the auditorium of the Biodesign Institute at ASU, 727 E. Tyler St., Tempe.
Hood, who has a medical degree from Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and a doctorate in biochemistry from the California Institute of Technology, is president and co-founder of the Institute for Systems Biology in Seattle. His research has focused on the study of molecular immunology, biotechnology and genomics.
The title of his talk is “Systems Biology Approaches to Biology and Disease and the Emergence of Proactive P4 Medicine.” It is part of a 2012 seminar series sponsored by ASU’s Complex Adaptive Systems Initiative and the Biodesign Institute.
Hood’s professional career began at Caltech, where he and his colleagues developed the DNA gene sequencer and synthesizer and the protein synthesizer and sequencer – four instruments that paved the way for the successful mapping of the human genome and lead to him receiving the 2011 Fritz J. and Delores H. Russ Prize awarded by the Academy of Engineering for automating DNA sequencing that revolutionized biomedicine and forensic science.
A pillar in the biotechnology field, Hood has played a role in founding more than 14 biotechnology companies, including Amgen, Applied Biosystems, Darwin, The Accelerator, and Integrated Diagnostics.
He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering and Institute of Medicine. Of the more than 6,000 scientists worldwide who belong to one or more of these academies, Hood is one of only 15 people elected to all three. He is also a member of the American Philosophical Society and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Hood’s work has been widely published, and he has coauthored numerous textbooks in biochemistry, immunology, molecular biology and genetics, as well as a popular book on the human genome project, “The Code of Codes.”
He is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Lasker Award, Kyoto Prize and Heinz Award in Technology. In addition to having received 17 honorary degrees from prestigious universities in the U.S. and abroad, Hood has published more than 700 peer reviewed articles and currently holds 30 patents.
Additional information, including a map with the seminar’s location, is at http://www.biodesign.asu.edu/calendar/systems-biology-approaches-to-biology-and-disease-and-the-emergence-of-proactive-p4-medicine.