“Luminary” is a big and possibly overused word, but it seems to fit in this case.

A bit of background: Bothell-based Lumera is a spinoff of Microvision Inc., which used to be in Bothell but now is in Redmond (and is in a bit of a crisis). Anyway, Lumera designs “proprietary molecular structures and polymer compounds for the bioscience and communications/computing industries,” as the company puts it. In short, Lumera has been experimenting with making diagnostic microarrays, similar to those that Mukilteo-based CombiMatrix Corp. makes.

To beef up the biotech background of its scientific advisory board, Lumera announced today that it has added Dr. Leroy Hood, president and co-founder of Institute for Systems Biology, and Dr. Josh LaBaer, founder and director of the Institute of Proteomics at Harvard Medical School, to the board.

I don’t know much about LaBaer, but directing proteomics at Harvard isn’t a second-rate job.

Hood, on the other hand, is well-known around the Puget Sound biotech community. He’s sometimes called the local biotech “godfather.” Here’s what he told a Lynnwood business luncheon when he spoke last fall: http://www.heraldnet.com/stories/05/09/15/100bus_medicine001.cfm.

Here’s Lumera’s announcement of Hood and LaBaer joining the board: http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20060418005332&newsLang=en