Lee Hood was one of the pioneers involved in the Human Genome Project as well as a cofounder of Applied BioSystems and numerous other biotech startups over the past three decades. In 2000, he cofounded the Institute for Systems Biology (ISB) in Seattle, where as president he is currently leading research with a view to moving toward precision medicine. Nature Biotechnology spoke to Hood about his long association with the California Institute of Technology, the P4 pilot project at ISB and playing football in the Rose Bowl. http://www.nature.com/nbt/podcast/index.html.