As director of the with Biomicro Center (BMC), Stuart Levine '97 takes on the range of challenges that he concerns daily. One of over 50 core institutions that provide joint resources throughout the institute supplies the BMC integrated high-through-through genomics, individual cell and spatial transcriptomical evaluation, support of bioinformatics and data management for researchers as a complete.
“Every day is one other day,” says Levine, “there are at all times recent problems, recent challenges, and technology continues to maneuver at an incredible pace.” After greater than 15 years within the role, Levine is grateful that the width of his work enables him to hunt solutions for thus many scientific problems.
Through the mix of biinformatics with biotech relationships and concentration on maximizing the results of the work of the middle, Levine offers the big selection of skills which can be mandatory to fulfill the range of questions asked by researchers within the query of biology.
Expansive specialist knowledge
The biology first appealed to Levine as with -Bachelor lessons 7.012 (introduction to biology)Thanks to the charisma of the trainers, Professor Eric Lander and Amgen Professor Emerita Nancy Hopkins. After his doctoral title in biochemistry at Harvard University and the Massachusett General Hospital, Levine returned to post -doctoral work with professor for Miss Richard YoungCore member of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research.
In the young laboratory, Levine found his calling as a pc scientist and eventually decided to remain on. Here his work has a far -reaching influence: the BMC serves over 100 laboratories from the laboratory of computer science and artificial intelligence and the departments of the brain and the cognitive sciences yearly. Earth, atmospheric and planetary sciences; Chemical engineering; Mechanical engineering; And after all biology.
“It is an entertaining way of fascinated with science,” says Levine, finding that he uses his knowledge and that the workflows in these many disciplines by “really and deeply understand the complexity of the instrumentation”.
This depth of understanding and experience enables Levine to steer the long -standing colleagues Professor Laurie Boyer Describes as “a state -of -the -art core who takes care of so many faculties and offers vital training opportunities for everybody”. He and his team work with state -of -the -art, finely coordinated scientific instruments that generate large amounts of bioinformatics data, after which use powerful calculation tools to store, organize and visualize the collected data. Host parasite interactions to proposed tools for NASA's planetary protection guideline.
Stay in front of the curve
With a scientist who leads the core, the BMC would love to enable researchers to “use the very best advantage of the system biology methods,” says Levine. These methods use advanced research technologies to arrange things like large DNA and RNA rates for sequencing, read DNA and RNA sequences from individual cells and to locate gene expression in specific tissues.
Levine presents a lightweight, clear rectangle over the width of a cellular phone and the length of a VHS cassette.
“This is a river cell that may perform 20 human genomes for clinical importance in two days – 8 billion reading processes,” he says. “There are newer instruments which can be nearly as good because the capability available several times.”
The overwhelming majority of research laboratories don’t need the sort of power, however the institute and its researchers as a complete. Levine emphasizes: “The Roi (Return on Investment) for the support of common resources is amazingly high, for the reason that support that we not only receive a laboratory, but in addition all laboratories that we support. The shared resources of with the bleeding border of science is for our ability to make a difference on this planet.”
In order to remain on the sting of research technology, Levine maintains company relationships, while his scientific understanding enables him to make clear researchers about what is feasible in the realm of modern system biology. Overall, these attributes enable Levine to assist his research customers “” the boundaries of what will be achieved “.
The man behind the machines
Every core facility works like a small company and, in line with academic and industry -specific services, offers specialized services for a various customer base. Amy Keating, Jay A. Stein (1968) Professor of Biology and Head of the Department of Biology. She explains that “education and the scientific and technological expertise of the MIT are of crucial importance for the success of life science research on and beyond.”
While Levine clearly has training and know -how, the success of the BMC “Business” is partly because of its persistence and focuses on the outcomes for the users of the core.
He was the institute with the Mile Award with Infinite Mile Award in 2015 and the With Excellence Award In 2017, a nominator wrote: “What Stuar's leadership of the BMC really makes for the co-community is invaluable is his unshakable commitment to the generation of high-quality data and its steadfast persistence in combating a type of troubleshooting that’s mandatory for a project.
“He puts researchers and her research in the primary place, whether education, technical services, general technical support or networking for workers outside of MIT,” says Noelani Kamelamela, laboratory manager of the BMC. “It's all in service for users and their projects.”
Levine's office is an acceptable symbol for its humility within the back corner of the BMC laboratory room. While his instructions and knowledge sits in the middle of what increases the BMC beyond technical support, he himself sits away from the highlight and supports others to advertise science.
“Stuart has at all times been the person, often behind the scenes, the good science, ideas and folks forward,” says Boyer. “His knowledge and advice really enabled us to be at the highest in our work.”
