Longtime SAB Chair Irving Weissman got his start at the Institute as a high school intern. He is one of the world’s leading stem cell biologists and Director of Stanford University’s Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine. Dr. Weissman was the first to identify and isolate the stem cell in any species.

Leroy Hood’s visionary work helped make possible the Human Genome Project and continues to transform science and medicine with the development of systems biology, which he has pioneered, and P4 medicine (predictive, preventive, personalized, and participatory). His latest major prize was the 2011 Russ Prize.

Francis Lefcort is a professor of cell biology and neuroscience at Montana State University in Bozeman, MT. Her lab focuses on the study of Familial dysautonomia (FD), a genetic neurological disorder that devastates the nervous system both during embryonic development and in adulthood.

David J. Anderson is the Seymour Benzer Professor and TianQiao and Chrissy Chen Leadership Chair in the Division of Biology and Biological Engineering at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, where he has been on the faculty since 1986. Dr. Anderson’s research career has spanned multiple topics in neuroscience, from neural development to angiogenesis, to the neural circuits that mediate innate emotional behaviors, such as fear and aggression.

Frank Bennett is the chief technical officer of n-Lorem Foundation. He also is a founding member of Ionis Pharmaceuticals and serves as the company’s chief scientific officer. Dr. Bennett is responsible for preclinical antisense drug discovery and antisense technology research. Previously, he was associate senior investigator in the Department of Molecular Pharmacology at SmithKline and French Laboratories, currently, GlaxoSmithKline.