As director of the MIT BioMicro Middle (BMC), Stuart Levine ’97 wholeheartedly embraces the number of challenges he tackles every day. One in all over 50 core amenities offering shared assets throughout the Institute, the BMC provides built-in high-throughput genomics, single-cell and spatial transcriptomic evaluation, bioinformatics assist, and information administration to researchers throughout MIT.
“On daily basis is a distinct day,” Levine says, “there are all the time new issues, new challenges, and the expertise is constant to maneuver at an unimaginable tempo.” After greater than 15 years within the function, Levine is grateful that the breadth of his work permits him to hunt options for therefore many scientific issues.
By combining bioinformatics experience with biotech relationships and a concentrate on maximizing the influence of the middle’s work, Levine brings the broad vary of expertise required to match the variety of questions requested by researchers in MIT’s Division of Biology.
Expansive experience
Biology first appealed to Levine as an MIT undergraduate taking class 7.012 (Introduction to Biology), due to the charisma of instructors Professor Eric Lander and Amgen Professor Emerita Nancy Hopkins. After incomes his PhD in biochemistry from Harvard College and Massachusetts Basic Hospital, Levine returned to MIT for postdoctoral work with Professor Richard Younger, core member on the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Analysis.
Within the Younger Lab, Levine discovered his calling as an informaticist and finally determined to remain at MIT. Right here, his work has a wide-ranging influence: the BMC serves over 100 labs yearly, from the the Laptop Science and Synthetic Intelligence Laboratory and the departments of Mind and Cognitive Sciences; Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences; Chemical Engineering; Mechanical Engineering; and, after all, Biology.
“It’s a enjoyable approach to consider science,” Levine says, noting that he applies his data and streamlines workflows throughout these many disciplines by “actually and deeply understanding the instrumentation complexities.”
This depth of understanding and expertise permits Levine to guide what longtime colleague Professor Laurie Boyer describes as “a state-of-the-art core that has served so many college and offers key coaching alternatives for all.” He and his crew work with cutting-edge, finely tuned scientific devices that generate huge quantities of bioinformatics information, then use highly effective computational instruments to retailer, arrange, and visualize the information collected, contributing to analysis on matters starting from host-parasite interactions to proposed instruments for NASA’s planetary safety coverage.
Staying forward of the curve
With a scientist directing the core, the BMC goals to allow researchers to “take the very best benefit of programs biology strategies,” says Levine. These strategies use superior analysis applied sciences to do issues like put together massive units of DNA and RNA for sequencing, learn DNA and RNA sequences from single cells, and localize gene expression to particular tissues.
Levine presents a light-weight, clear rectangle concerning the width of a mobile phone and the size of a VHS cassette.
“This can be a circulation cell that may do 20 human genomes to medical significance in two days — 8 billion reads,” he says. “There are newer devices with a number of instances that capability out there as nicely.”
The overwhelming majority of analysis labs don’t want that form of energy, however the Institute, and its researchers as a complete, actually do. Levine emphasizes that “the ROI [return on investment] for supporting shared assets is extraordinarily excessive as a result of no matter assist we obtain impacts not only one lab, however the entire labs we assist. Maintaining MIT’s shared assets on the bleeding fringe of science is essential to our means to make a distinction on the earth.”
To remain on the fringe of analysis expertise, Levine maintains firm relationships, whereas his scientific understanding permits him to coach researchers on what is feasible within the house of contemporary programs biology. Altogether, these attributes allow Levine to assist his researcher purchasers “push the boundaries of what’s achievable.”
The person behind the machines
Every core facility operates like a small enterprise, providing specialised providers to a various consumer base throughout tutorial and business analysis, in accordance with Amy Keating, Jay A. Stein (1968) Professor of Biology and head of the Division of Biology. She explains that “the PhD-level training and scientific and technological experience of MIT’s core administrators are essential to the success of life science analysis at MIT and past.”
Whereas Levine clearly has the training and experience, the success of the BMC “enterprise” can also be partially resulting from his tenacity and concentrate on outcomes for the core’s customers.
He was acknowledged by the Institute with the MIT Infinite Mile Award in 2015 and the MIT Excellence Award in 2017, for which one nominator wrote, “What makes Stuart’s management of the BMC actually invaluable to the MIT neighborhood is his unwavering dedication to producing high-quality information and his steadfast persistence in tackling any sort of troubleshooting wanted for a mission. These attributes, fostered by Stuart, permeate the complete tradition of the BMC.”
“He places researchers and their analysis first, whether or not offering training, technical providers, basic tech assist, or networking to collaborators exterior of MIT,” says Noelani Kamelamela, lab supervisor of the BMC. “It’s all in service to customers and their initiatives.”
Tucked into the far again nook of the BMC lab house, Levine’s workplace is a becoming image of his humility. Whereas his steering and data sit on the heart of what elevates the BMC past technical assist, he himself sits away from the highlight, resolutely supporting others to advance science.
“Stuart has all the time been the particular person, typically behind the scenes, that pushes nice science, concepts, and folks ahead,” Boyer says. “His data and recommendation have actually allowed us to be at the vanguard in our work.”
