Speaker Profile
Biography
A world-renowned scientist and recipient of the National Medal of Science in 2011, Dr. Leroy Hood co-founded the Institute for Systems Biology (ISB) in 2000 and served as its first President from 2000-2017. In 2021, he founded Phenome Health, a non-profit research organization dedicated to contributing solutions to the major challenges causing a crisis in healthcare. In September 2023, Dr. Hood joined the Buck Institute for Research on Aging as Chief Innovation Officer and Distinguished Professor. Dr. Hood 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, Dr. Hood is one of only 20 people elected to all three. He is also a member of the Inventors Hall of Fame for inventing automated DNA sequencing.
Session Abstract – PMWC 2026 Silicon Valley
Track Chair: TBA
PMWC Award Ceremony Honorees
• Mark Daly, Broad Institute
• Daniel MacArthur, CPG/Genomes/gnomAD
• Gordon Sanghera, Oxford Nanopore
• Howard J. Jacob, Abbvie
The Data Factory: Building Systems to Integrate Millions of Genomes for Variant Interpretation
• Chair: Stephen B. Montgomery, Stanford
• Carlos D. Bustamante, University of Oklahoma
• Mark Daly, Broad Institute/FinnGen
• Manuel Rivas, Stanford
• Mark McCarthy, Genentech
• Nilah Ioannidis, UC Berkeley
Biobanks to Bedside: Cutting VUS in Cancer, Cardio & Rare—What’s Working Now
• Chair: Ben Neale, Broad Institute
• Daniel MacArthur, CPG/Genomes/gnomAD
Beyond the Read: Integrating Long-Read Data into the Clinical Variant Pipeline
• Chair: Gordon Sanghera, Oxford Nanopore Technologies
• Hanlee P. Ji, Stanford
DNA to FDA: How Genetic Targets Win Labels & Coverage
• Russ B. Altman, Stanford
Common Diseases in Clinical Cohorts – Not Always What They Seem
• Howard J. Jacob, Abbvie
DNA to FDA: How Genetic Targets Win Labels & Coverage
• Chair: Razelle Kurzrock, Medical College of Wisconsin
• Russ B. Altman, Stanford
25+ Years of the Human Genome — What Made It to the Bedside
• Chair: Ralph Snyderman, Duke
• J. Craig Venter, Craig Venter Institute (JCVI)
• Brook Byers, KPCB
• Lee Hood, Phenome Health




