Leroy Hood, 2003

Item — Multiple Containers

Staff Only

Oral History | Leroy Hood

Scope and Contents

Leroy Hood, a leader in the fields of molecular biotechnology and genomics, is interviewed by Mila Pollock and Kiryn Haslinger on May 29, 2003 and June 1, 2003, at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory's Carnegie Library, in Cold Spring Harbor, New York.

Leroy Hood, reminisces about becoming a scientist, his early support of biotechnology, his work in genomics research, and social and ethical issues surrounding genomics. He remembers fellow Caltech scientists and others, including Jim Watson and Bruce Stillman at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. The 1986 and 2003 Cold Spring Harbor Symposia which focused on the human genome are also discussed.

Leroy Hood's interview discusses the following: Scene 1. Becoming a scientist -- Scene 2. What is it to be a scientist? -- Scene 3. Biotechnology -- Scene 4. Mentoring -- Scene 5. Involvement in genomics -- Scene 6. 1986 Cold Spring Harbor Symposium: Molecular biology of Homo Sapiens -- Scene 7. Meeting Jim Watson -- Scene 8. Jim Watson, personality and influence -- Scene 9. Cold Spring Harbor Symposia -- Scene 10. 2003 Cold Spring Harbor Symposium: The genome of Homo Sapiens -- Scene 11. Opposition to the Human Genome Project -- Scene 12. The Human Genome Project: international collaboration -- Scene 13. The Human Genome Project: changes over time -- Scene 14. Changes in genomics -- Scene 15. Research highlights: developing automated sequencing -- Scene 16. Dangers of genomic research -- Scene 17. Gene patenting -- Scene 18. Nature vs. nurture -- Scene 19. Competition in science -- Scene 20. The future of genomcis: systems biology -- Scene 21. Max Delbrück -- Scene 22. Sydney Brenner -- Scene 23. Francis Crick -- Scene 24. Edward Lewis -- Scene 25. Linus Pauling -- Scene 26. Tom Maniatis -- Scene 27. George Beadle -- Scene 28. Ray Gesteland -- Scene 29. Bruce Stillman.

Dates

Creation: 2003

Creator

Hood, Leroy E. (Interviewee, Person)
Haslinger, Kiryn (Interviewer, Person)
Pollock, Ludmila (Interviewer, Person)
Clark, Clare (Transcriber, Person)
Viteri, Carlos (Videographer, Person)
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. Library and Archives (Publisher, Organization)

Conditions Governing Access

Portions of this collection have been digitized and are available online: https://library.cshl.edu/oralhistory/. Select tapes have been digitized thanks to support from CLIR Recordings at Risk Grant awarded in 2021, these tapes are available for research online via our Oral History Website and in person at CSHL Archives. Please contact CSHL Archives archives@cshl.edu with any questions regarding availability.

Biographical / Historical

Leroy Hood, a leading scientist in molecular biotechnology and genomics, received his M.D. from Johns Hopkins Medical School (1964) and his Ph.D. in biochemistry from Caltech (1968). In 1992, after more than 20 years as a faculty member at Caltech, where he and his colleagues revolutionized genomics by developing automated DNA sequencing, he relocated to the University of Washington to establish the cross-disciplinary Department of Molecular Biotechnology. Dr. Hood is the co-founder of the Institute for Systems Biology in Seattle, where he is currently Chief Strategy Officer and Professor and where he leads efforts to pioneer systems approaches to biology and medicine. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, and National Academy of Medicine and has received the Lasker Award for his studies on the mechanism of immune diversity.

He has founded or co-founded several companies including Amgen, Applied Biosystems, Rosetta, Darwin, Integrated Diagnostics, Indi Molecular and Arivale.