biology

Leroy Hood

Leroy Hood is a biology topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Leroy Hood rather than just read about it. In short: Leroy "Lee" Edward Hood (born October 10, 1938) is an American biologist who has served on the faculties at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and the University of Washington. His inventions include the first gas phase protein sequencer (1982), for determining the sequence of amino acids in a given protein; a DNA synthesizer (1983), to synthesize short sections of DNA; a peptide synthesizer (1984), to…

Key takeaways

Leroy Hood belongs to biology; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Leroy Hood to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Leroy Hood from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Leroy "Lee" Edward Hood (born October 10, 1938) is an American biologist who has served on the faculties at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and the University of Washington. His inventions include the first gas phase protein sequencer (1982), for determining the sequence of amino acids in a given protein; a DNA synthesizer (1983), to synthesize short sections of DNA; a peptide synthesizer (1984), to combine amino acids into longer peptides and short proteins; the first automated DNA sequencer (1986), to identify the order of nucleotides in DNA; ink-jet oligonucleotide technology for synthesizing DNA and nanostring technology for analyzing single molecules of DNA and RNA. The protein sequencer, DNA synthesizer, peptide synthesizer, and DNA sequencer were commercialized through Applied Biosystems, Inc. and the ink-jet technology was commercialized through Agilent Technologies. The automated DNA sequencer was an enabling technology for the Human Genome Project. The peptide synthesizer was used in the synthesis of the HIV protease by Stephen Kent and others, and the development of a protease inhibitor for AIDS treatment. Hood established the first cross-disciplinary biology department, the Department of Molecular Biotechnology (MBT), at the University of Washington in 1992, and co-founded the Institute for Systems Biology in 2000. Hood is credited with introducing the term "systems biology", and advocates for "P4 medicine", medicine that is "predictive, personalized, preventive, and participatory." Scientific American counted him among the 10 most influential people in the field of biotechnology in 2015. Hood was elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering in 2007 for the invention and commercialization of key instruments, notably the automated DNA sequencer, that have enabled the biotechnology revolution.

Early life

Hood was born on October 10, 1938, in Missoula, Montana, to Thomas Edward Hood and Myrtle Evylan Wadsworth. and grew up in Shelby. His father was an electrical engineer, and his mother had a degree in home economics. Hood was one of four children, including a sister and two brothers, including a brother with Down syndrome. One of his grandfathers was a rancher and ran a summer geology camp for university students, which Hood attended as a high school student. Hood excelled in math and science, being one of forty students nationally to win a Westinghouse Science Talent Search. In addition, Hood played several high school sports and debate, the latter of which he would credit for his success in science communication later in his career.

Education Hood received his undergraduate education from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), where his professors included notables such as Richard Feynman and Linus Pauling. Hood received an MD from Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in 1964 and a PhD from Caltech in 1968, where he worked with William J. Dreyer on antibody diversity. Dreyer is credited with giving Hood two important pieces of advice: "If you want to practice biology, do it on the leading edge, and if you want to be on the leading edge, invent new tools for deciphering biological information."

Career

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Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Leroy Hood

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Leroy Hood claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Leroy Hood before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Leroy Hood ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Leroy Hood

In research: Leroy Hood appears in biology research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Leroy Hood in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Leroy Hood is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1938 births, 21st-century American biologists, American systems biologists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Leroy Hood outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Leroy Hood in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Leroy Hood means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Leroy Hood out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Leroy Hood in simple terms?

Why does Leroy Hood matter?

Because it connects several biology ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Leroy Hood?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Leroy Hood.