WHAT HE'S DOING NOW: ISB focuses on "big science" projects like mapping the genes of families prone to prostate cancer. To recruit families, for example, Hood appeared on Larry King Live with prostate cancer survivor Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf. One of the core beliefs at ISB is that medicine will become more and more personalized, with people sequencing their own genes and pharmaceutical companies developing drugs for groups with certain genetic characteristics. "It's utterly inevitable," Hood says. "You can argue whether it will happen five years or ten years from now, but it's already starting."

And when it does, ISB will be reaping the rewards, says Hood, who lined up support from venture capitalists to create a project called The Accelerator. In exchange for access to cash and ISB resources, ISB gets an equity stake which, in time, will build an endowment.

It's a different business model than the usual academic one, but because Hood learned as much about science from the telephone company and a geology camp as he did in school, he knows that progress is not the province of academia alone. "My fundamental philosophy is that you owe it to society to transfer to them any knowledge you have that might be useful," he says.

5 Comments

1. 1. Assegai 07:28 PM 6/16/08

   "My fundamental philosophy is that you owe it to society to transfer to them any knowledge you have that might be useful," he says. So true, one who adds depth and breadth to a subject has to be saluted, they are the ones that improve our life's, thanks sciam.com, great article.

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2. 2. Assegai 08:09 PM 6/16/08

   That is why the world needs to understand about the importance of knowledge, because of people like Hood, it creates everything.

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3. 3. gs_chandy 05:32 AM 6/17/08

   What an excellent article, about a most inspiring sort of person! Thanks, SciAm! --- GSC

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4. 4. bucketofsquid 08:35 PM 6/17/08

   To quote my favorite stupid web video;
   "I, too, have much love for little blue man".
   Thank you Dr. Lee Hood. You have been added to my list of personal heros.

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5. 5. Robert Ligon 06:53 PM 7/31/10

   Dear Dr. Hood,
   
   I am not a genetist but I am very interested in the subject. I have some observations, but I assure you I do not have any scientific training in the field. So my obeservations may or may not be of interest to you.My principal observation is that DNA just dominates a human's p0ersonality. I know this because my adult daughter is intelligent and highly emotional like me and my adult son is intellignt and unemotional like my wife. Same parents and same environment but totally different personalities. My four-year old granddaughter is quite an artist. She drew a picture that no one could figure out. Her father finally identified it as a negative photograph. We all wondered how that was possible because she had never seen a negative before. I think this memory was passed on to her by DNA. But I do not have any extraordinary proof that this is true, it is just a guess on my part.
   
   Sincerely,
   
   Robert Ligon
   La Crescenta, CA

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