Stephen Quake's interests lie at the nexus of physics, biology, and biotechnology. His research is concerned with developing new forms of biological automation and applying these tools to problems of biological and medical interest. Areas of interest include structural genomics, systems biology, microbial ecology, and nanoliter-scale synthetic chemistry.

Quake received his B.S. and M.S. from Stanford University, and his Ph.D. from the University of Oxford in Physics. He earned the 2004 NIH Director's Pioneer Award, and was among MIT Tech Review's 100 Young Innovators that Will Create the Future. He was a Packard Foundation Fellow in 1999.