Pursuing innovation has always been a way of life for Jay Shendure, MD, PhD, professor of Genome Sciences at the University of Washington School of Medicine. Even before a college genetics class inspired him to abandon a major in cultural anthropology, Shendure had a mindset for scientific creativity.
“While growing up, the adults in my life offered a lot of encouragement. I designed a perpetual motion machine that my mom told me would work,” says Shendure, director of the Allen Discovery Center for Cell Lineage and scientific director of the Brotman Baty Institute for Precision Medicine. “My second stupidest idea was probably a paper mache hot air balloon. It never occurred to me that it would light on fire. But my science teacher let me launch it.”
