Leroy Hood Quotes

An important finding is that by determining the genome sequences of an entire family, one can identify many DNA sequencing errors and thus greatly increase the accuracy of the data. This will ultimately help us understand the role of genetic variations in the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of disease.

I think the real problem is it’s easy to persuade young kids of particular kinds of ideas, because they are flexible.

The Human Genome Project has given us a genetic parts list.

Almost never does a single company have excellence in a multiplicity of disciplines.

I already get 10 job offers a year, which is more than I can handle anyway.

Genes are natural resources.

In the late 1970s, when I was a professor at Caltech, I pioneered four instruments for analyzing genes and proteins that revolutionized modern biology – and one of these, the automated DNA sequencer, enabled the Human Genome Project.

What is unique about humans is their individuality.

We are evolutionary descendents of this marvellous panoply of life. And what that says unequivocally is we have an utter total obligation to make sure we have an environment that not only is good for us but is good for all living organisms.

All of the details that most of us memorize in medical school – you don’t have to learn those things. They’re going to be in your computer.

Your genome sequence will become a vital part of your medical record, thereby providing critical information about how to optimize your wellness.

The wellness and prevention market will outgrow the health care market.

We don’t argue if drug companies create drugs that can cure humans and charge lots of money for them, even though we all have these diseases. It will be pretty hard to make a different argument for genes.

Medicine will be personalized and preventive: Your genome might predict that you have an 80 percent chance of breast cancer by the time you are 50, but if you take a preventive drug starting when you are 40, the chance will drop to 2 percent.

If a startup stays in Microsoft, it does not have a chance, because all it tries to do goes against what Microsoft is about.

To manipulate the immune system, you need to find the key bottlenecks that govern the system. The T-cell is an absolute bottleneck.

Data-intensive graph problems abound in the Life Science drug discovery and development process.

Many nonprofits rely on grants alone.

Cloning interferon was not something I wanted to get into.

Don’t underestimate the power of your vision to change the world. Whether that world is your office, your community, an industry or a global movement, you need to have a core belief that what you contribute can fundamentally change the paradigm or way of thinking about problems.

In the end, what counts is what you do.

I didn’t want my genome to be sequenced by any of the companies that were out there doing the partial sequences just from the point of view of commercialisation.

If you look at healthcare today, it’s all about disease. It’s not about understanding wellness at all.

Breast cancer isn’t one disease – it’s probably four or five different types, and without knowing what type a person has, you can’t optimize treatment for them.

If you go to the FDA with a drug that’s only meant to treat 50 people, and it’s a 95 percent cure rate, you’ll get your drug approved.