Qatar Foundation’s thirteenth distinguished lecture series presents Dr. Leroy Hood MD, PhD

The thirteenth lecture of the Distinguished Lecture Series, organized by Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development (QF), will present Dr. Leroy Hood MD, PhD and President and Co-founder of the Institute for Systems Biology in Seattle, Washington. His presentation, “Systems Biology, Systems Medicine and Proactive P4 Medicine,” is open to the public and will take place on Tuesday, 24 January from 10:30AM-12:30PM in Lecture Hall 4 at Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar (WCMC-Q).

Focusing particularly on the solutions necessary for systems biology to face 21^st century challenges, Dr. Hood will discuss emerging technologies that can transform biology and medicine over the next decade. He will also explain how medicine can be modified from its current reactive state to a so-called “P4” mode that is predictive, personalized, preventive, and participatory.

The presentation will also discuss the Institute for Systems Biology’s recent research into neurodegenerative (prion) disease and glioblastoma, a particularly aggressive form of brain tumor. Case studies on mice have allowed Dr. Hood to learn more about these conditions in humans.

Vice President for Research at QF, Dr. Abdelali Al Haoudi emphasized the importance of the advancement of medicine in Qatar by stating, “The development in computing and biotechnology including genetics, computational biology, functional genomics and systems biology has leapfrogged over the years.”

“It is very timely for Qatar to embrace these fields, which will advance us to a new era of preventive, predictive, personalized and proactive participatory medical care for the State.”

Dr. Hood’s professional career began at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), where he helped develop synthesizers and sequencers for the DNA gene and for protein.  His efforts not only revolutionized biomedicine and forensic science, but earned him the 2011 Fritz J. and Delores H. Russ Prize, awarded by the U.S. National Academy of Engineering.

Dr. Hood has played a significant role in founding more than a dozen biotechnology companies, including Amgen, Applied Biosystems, Darwin, The Accelerator and Integrated Diagnostics. He co-authored “The Code of Codes,” a popular book on the human genome project, and has penned numerous textbooks on biochemistry, immunology, molecular biology and genetics.

Holding 17 honorary degrees, Dr. Hood has received numerous international awards, and is one of only 15 scientists in the world who are simultaneous members of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine.

At the forefront of numerous groundbreaking discoveries, Dr. Hood is promoting QF’s mission to achieve a knowledge-based economy.  His insight, fresh perspective and remarkable achievements will encourage the development of human potential, both in QF and Qatar as a whole.