Scientific superstars relocating their labs

Abstract

Migrations by two scientific superstars were announced last week. Leroy E. Hood, a biologist at California Institute of Technology, Pasadena-best known for developing instrumentation essential for genetic engineering—will relocate to the University of Washington, Seattle. And Gerald M. Edelman, a Nobel Prize winner and director of the Neurosciences Institute at Rockefeller University, New York City, will move his institute to the Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, Calif. Hood will relocate a sizable portion of his large research group to Washington in 1992 to set up a molecular biotechnology department in the university's school of medicine. Hood's move is made possible by a $12 million gift to the university by William Gates III, the billionaire founder and chief executive officer of Microsoft Corp. Hood and his collaborators have been at the forefront of developing instruments that automatically synthesize or sequence DNA, and that synthesize or sequence proteins. His departure from Caltech is a blow...