In October 1991, Hood announced that he would move to the University of Washington at Seattle, to found and direct the first cross-disciplinary biology department, the Department of Molecular Biotechnology (MBT) at the University of Washington Medical School. The new department was financed by a US $12-million gift from Bill Gates, who shared Hood's interest in combining biological research and computer technology and applying them to medical research. Hood and other scientists from Caltech's NSF center moved to the University of Washington during 1992-1994, where they received renewed support from the NSF as the Center for Molecular Biotechnology. (Later, in 2001, the Department of Molecular Biotechnology and the Genetics department at UW reorganized to form the Department of Genome Sciences.)