As director of the MIT BioMicro Middle (BMC), Stuart Levine ’97 wholeheartedly embraces the number of challenges he tackles every day. One among over 50 core amenities offering shared sources 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.
“Daily is a unique day,” Levine says, “there are at all times 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 thus many scientific issues.
By combining bioinformatics experience with biotech relationships and a deal with 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), because of the charisma of instructors Professor Eric Lander and Amgen Professor Emerita Nancy Hopkins. After incomes his PhD in biochemistry from Harvard College and Massachusetts Common 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 Pc 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 “really and deeply understanding the instrumentation complexities.”
This depth of understanding and expertise permits Levine to steer what longtime colleague Professor Laurie Boyer describes as “a state-of-the-art core that has served so many college and gives key coaching alternatives for all.” He and his staff work with cutting-edge, finely tuned scientific devices that generate huge quantities of bioinformatics information, then use highly effective computational instruments to retailer, set up, and visualize the information collected, contributing to analysis on subjects 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 perfect benefit of methods biology strategies,” says Levine. These strategies use superior analysis applied sciences to do issues like put together giant 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.
“It is a stream 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 occasions that capability accessible as properly.”
The overwhelming majority of analysis labs don’t want that type of energy, however the Institute, and its researchers as a complete, actually do. Levine emphasizes that “the ROI [return on investment] for supporting shared sources is extraordinarily excessive as a result of no matter assist we obtain impacts not only one lab, however all the labs we assist. Conserving MIT’s shared sources on the bleeding fringe of science is important 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 area of recent methods biology. Altogether, these attributes allow Levine to assist his researcher shoppers “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 shopper base throughout tutorial and business analysis, in response to Amy Keating, Jay A. Stein (1968) Professor of Biology and head of the Division of Biology. She explains that “the PhD-level schooling and scientific and technological experience of MIT’s core administrators are important to the success of life science analysis at MIT and past.”
Whereas Levine clearly has the schooling and experience, the success of the BMC “enterprise” can be partly attributable to his tenacity and deal with 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 really 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 venture. These attributes, fostered by Stuart, permeate the complete tradition of the BMC.”
“He places researchers and their analysis first, whether or not offering schooling, technical providers, normal 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 tasks.”
Tucked into the far again nook of the BMC lab area, Levine’s workplace is a becoming image of his humility. Whereas his steering and data sit on the middle of what elevates the BMC past technical assist, he himself sits away from the highlight, resolutely supporting others to advance science.
“Stuart has at all times been the particular person, usually behind the scenes, that pushes nice science, concepts, and folks ahead,” Boyer says. “His data and recommendation have really allowed us to be at the vanguard in our work.”