About Me

Leroy Hood, MD, is a world-renowned scientist and a recipient of the National Medal of Science (2011). He co-founded the Institute for Systems Biology (ISB) in 2000 and served as its first president (2000–17). In 2016, ISB affiliated with Providence St. Joseph Health (PSJH), and Lee became PSJH’s senior vice president and chief science officer. He is currently also chief strategy officer and a professor at ISB and the CEO of Phenome Health. Lee is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the National Academy of Medicine. Of the more than 6,000 scientists worldwide who belong to one or more of these academies, he is one of only 20 elected to all three. 

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Lee received his MD from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and his PhD in biochemistry from Caltech. He was a faculty member at Caltech (1967–92) and served 10 years as the chair of biology. During this period, he and his colleagues developed four sequencer and synthesizer instruments that paved the way for the Human Genome Project’s successful mapping and understanding of the human genome. He and his students also deciphered many of the complex mechanisms of antibody diversification. In 1992, he founded and chaired the Department of Molecular Biotechnology at the University of Washington – the first academic department devoted to cross-disciplinary biology. 

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Lee has co-founded 17 biotech companies, including Amgen, Applied Biosystems, Rosetta, and Arivale. His many national and international awards include the Lasker Prize, the Kyoto Prize, and the National Medal of Science.