As director of the MIT BioMicro Center (BMC), Stuart Levine ’97 wholeheartedly embraces the selection of challenges he tackles every day. One of over 50 core services 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.
“Every day is a different day,” Levine says, “there are always new problems, new challenges, and the technology is continuing to move at an incredible pace.” After greater than 15 years in the position, 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 deal with maximizing the impression of the middle’s work, Levine brings the broad vary of abilities required to match the range of questions requested by researchers in MIT’s Department 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 University and Massachusetts General Hospital, Levine returned to MIT for postdoctoral work with Professor Richard Young, core member at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research.
In the Young Lab, Levine discovered his calling as an informaticist and finally determined to remain at MIT. Here, his work has a wide-ranging impression: the BMC serves over 100 labs yearly, from the the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and the departments of Brain and Cognitive Sciences; Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences; Chemical Engineering; Mechanical Engineering; and, of course, Biology.
“It’s a fun way to think about science,” Levine says, noting that he applies his data and streamlines workflows throughout these many disciplines by “truly 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 faculty and provides key training opportunities for all.” He and his workforce work with cutting-edge, finely tuned scientific devices that generate huge quantities of bioinformatics information, then use highly effective computational instruments to retailer, manage, 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 best advantage of systems biology methods,” 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 about the width of a cellphone and the size of a VHS cassette.
“This is a flow cell that can do 20 human genomes to clinical significance in two days — 8 billion reads,” he says. “There are newer instruments with several times that capacity available as well.”
The overwhelming majority of analysis labs don’t want that sort of energy, however the Institute, and its researchers as an entire, actually do. Levine emphasizes that “the ROI [return on investment] for supporting shared resources is extremely high because whatever support we receive impacts not just one lab, but all of the labs we support. Keeping MIT’s shared resources at the bleeding edge of science is critical to our ability to make a difference in the world.”
To keep at the edge of analysis know-how, Levine maintains firm relationships, whereas his scientific understanding permits him to coach researchers on what is feasible in the house of fashionable methods biology. Altogether, these attributes allow Levine to assist his researcher shoppers “push the limits of what is achievable.”
The man behind the machines
Each core facility operates like a small enterprise, providing specialised providers to a various shopper base throughout educational and business analysis, in line with Amy Keating, Jay A. Stein (1968) Professor of Biology and head of the Department of Biology. She explains that “the PhD-level education and scientific and technological expertise of MIT’s core directors are critical to the success of life science research at MIT and beyond.”
While Levine clearly has the schooling and experience, the success of the BMC “business” can also be partially as a result of 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 leadership of the BMC truly invaluable to the MIT community is his unwavering dedication to producing high-quality data and his steadfast persistence in tackling any type of troubleshooting needed for a project. These attributes, fostered by Stuart, permeate the entire culture of the BMC.”
“He puts researchers and their research first, whether providing education, technical services, general tech support, or networking to collaborators outside of MIT,” says Noelani Kamelamela, lab supervisor of the BMC. “It’s all in service to users and their projects.”
Tucked into the far again nook of the BMC lab house, Levine’s workplace is a becoming image of his humility. While his steering and data sit at 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 always been the person, often behind the scenes, that pushes great science, ideas, and people forward,” Boyer says. “His knowledge and advice have truly allowed us to be at the leading edge in our work.”