Dr. Leroy Hood to Deliver Plenary Lecture at Pittcon 2008

The Pittsburgh Conference recently announced that Dr. Leroy Hood will deliver the plenary lecture, Systems Biology and Systems Medicine, during the opening session of Pittcon 2008 at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center, New Orleans, LA on March 2, 2008. The opening session agenda will begin with the presentation of the Pittcon Heritage Award to Michael W. Hunkapiller, former president of Applied Biosystems, followed by the plenary lecture, and will conclude with a poster session and complimentary mixer.

Dr. Hunkapiller was a pioneer in protein sequenators, DNA analysis, synthesizers, and other gene measuring instruments while doing research at Cal Tech where he worked with Leroy Hood in the early 1980s. He joined Applied Biosystems in 1983 when it was a start-up company trying to commercialize the DNA sequencing machine and other machines as chief scientist and later as president. His work was key in allowing others to do gene analysis and in genomics programs.

Dr. Hood, president of the Institute for Systems Biology, earned an M.D. from Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in 1964 and a Ph.D. in biochemistry from the California Institute of Technology in 1968. Dr. Hood has focused his research on fundamental biology and on bringing engineering to biology through the development of five instruments?the DNA and protein sequencers and synthesizers and the ink-jet oligonucleotide synthesizer -- for deciphering the various types of biological information.

Among his many accomplishments and affiliations, Dr. Hood was elected to the Inventors Hall of Fame; received 14 honorary degrees from Institutions such as Johns Hopkins, UCLA, and Whitman College; published more than 600 peer-reviewed papers; received 14 patents; co-authored textbooks in biochemistry, immunology, molecular biology, and genetics; co-authored a popular book on the human genome project?The Code of Codes; and is currently finishing a text book on systems biology.