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John Craig Venter (born October 14, 1946) is an American biologist and entrepreneur.[1] Venter founded Celera Genomics, The Institute for Genomic Research and the J. Craig Venter Institute, now working at the latter to create synthetic biological organisms for environmental change and to document genetic diversity in the world's oceans. He was listed on Time Magazine's 2007 and 2008 Time 100 list of the most influential people in the world.
[edit] Early lifeVenter was born in Salt Lake City, Utah. In his youth, Venter did not take his education seriously, preferring to spend his time on the water in boats or surfing.[citation needed] According to his biography, A Life Decoded, he was said to be never a terribly engaged student, having Cs and Ds on his eighth grade report cards.[2][not specific enough to verify] According to Time Magazine, it was not always evident that Venter would become a transformative figure, particularly when he was a boy.[citation needed] Although being against the Vietnam War,[citation needed] Venter was drafted and enlisted in the United States Navy where he worked in the intensive care ward of a field hospital. Being confronted with wounded, maimed, and dying soldiers on a daily basis instilled in him a desire to study medicine[citation needed]—although later on he found his true calling in scientific research. [edit] EducationVenter graduated from Mills High School and began his college career at a community college, College of San Mateo in California. He received his B.S. degree in biochemistry in 1972, and his Ph.D. degree in physiology and pharmacology in 1975, both from the University of California, San Diego. At UCSD, he studied under biochemist Nathan O. Kaplan,[3] and married former Ph.D. candidate, Barbara Rae.[4][not in citation given][5][not in citation given] After working as a professor at the State University of New York at Buffalo, he joined the National Institutes of Health in 1984. In Buffalo, he divorced Dr. Rae-Venter and married his student, Claire M. Fraser,[5] and remained married to her until 2005.[6] [edit] DiscoveryWhile at NIH, Venter learned of a technique for rapidly identifying all of the mRNAs present in a cell, and began to use it to identify human brain genes. The short cDNA sequence fragments discovered by this method are called expressed sequence tags (ESTs) a name coined by Anthony Kerlavage at The Institute for Genomic Research. The NIH initially lead an effort to patent these gene fragments, of which Venter coincidentally and controversially became involved.[7][improper synthesis?] The NIH later withdrew the patent applications after public outcry, and subsequent court cases declared that ESTs were not directly patentable.[8] [edit] Human Genome ProjectVenter was passionate about the power of genomics to radically transform healthcare. Venter believed that shotgun sequencing was the fastest and most effective way to get useful human genome data.[9] The method was controversial, however, since most[weasel words] geneticists felt it would not be accurate enough for a genome as complicated as the human.[10][not in citation given] Frustrated with what Venter viewed as the slow pace of progress in the Human Genome project, and unable to get funds for his ideas, he sought funding from the private sector to found Celera Genomics. The goal of the company was to sequence the entire human genome and release it into the public domain for non-commercial use in much less time and for much less cost than the public human genome project. The company planned to monetize their work by creating a value added database of genomic data that users could subscribe to for a fee. The goal consequently put pressure on the public genome program and spurred several groups to redouble their efforts to produce the full sequence. DNA from five demographically different individuals was used by Celera to generate the sequence of the human genome; one of them being Venter. In 2000, Venter and Francis Collins of the National Institute of Health and U.S. Public Genome Project jointly made the announcement of the mapping of the human genome in 2000, a full three years ahead of the expected end of the Public Genome Program. The announcement was made along with US President Bill Clinton, and U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair.[11] Venter and Collins thus shared an award for "Biography of the Year" from A&E Network.[12] Celera published the first Human Genome in the Journal Science, and was soon followed by a Human Genome Project Publication in Nature.[13][14] Despite some claims that shotgun sequencing was in some ways less accurate than the clone-by-clone method chosen by the Human Genome Project,[15] the technique became widely accepted by the scientific community and is still used today. After completing the Human Genome, and releasing it into the public domain, Venter was fired by Celera in early 2002.[16] According to his biography, Venter was ready to leave Celera, and was fired due to conflict with the main investor, Tony White, that had existed since day one of the project. Venter writes that his main goal was always to accelerate science and thereby discovery, and only sought help from the corporate world when he couldn't find funding in the public sector. [edit] Current workVenter is currently the president of the J. Craig Venter Institute, which conducts research in synthetic biology. In June 2005, he co-founded Synthetic Genomics, a firm dedicated to using modified microorganisms to produce clean fuels and biochemicals. In July 2009, ExxonMobil announced a $600 million collaboration with Synthetic Genomics to research and develop next-generation biofuels/[17] Venter used his sloop, Sorcerer II, in the Global Ocean Sampling Expedition to help assess genetic diversity in marine microbial communities.[18] [edit] Media coverage
Venter has been the subject of articles in several magazines, notably[peacock term] Wired,[19] The Economist,[20] Australian science magazine Cosmos,[21][22] and The Atlantic.[23] Additionally, he was featured on The Colbert Report on both February 27, 2007, and October 30, 2007. Venter appeared in the "Evolution" episode of the documentary television series Understanding. On May 16, 2004, Venter gave the commencement speech at Boston University.[24] In a 2007 interview with New Scientist when asked "Assuming you can make synthetic bacteria, what will you do with them?", Venter replied:
Furthermore it suggests that one of the main purposes for creating synthetic bacteria would be to reduce the dependence on fossil fuels through bioremediation.[25] On May 10, 2007, Venter was awarded an honorary doctorate from Arizona State University.[26] He was on the 2007 Time 100 most influential people in the world list made by Time magazine. In 2007 he also received the Golden Eurydice Award for contributions to Biophilosophy. On September 4, 2007, a team led by Venter published the first complete (six-billion-letter) genome of an individual human — Venter's own DNA sequence.[27] On BBC News on October 22, 2007, when asked about his religious view he replied that he thought that a true scientist could not believe in supernatural explanations.[not specific enough to verify] On December 4, 2007, Venter gave the Dimbleby lecture for the BBC in London. He outlined his current work and future developments in genetics. In February 2008, he gave a speech about his current work at the TED conference. The video can be seen online and downloaded.[28] Venter delivered the 2008 convocation speech for Faculty of Science honours and specialization students at the University of Alberta. A transcription of the speech is available here.[29] Dr. Venter was featured in Time Magazine's "The Top 10 Everything of 2008" article. Number three in 2008's Top 10 Scientific Discoveries was a piece outlining his work stitching together the 582,000 base pairs necessary to invent the genetic information for a whole new bacterium.[30] Dr. Venter took part in the inaugural San Diego Science Festival and spoke at its press conference on February 26, 2009. On April 6, 2009, Venter gave a speech at Arizona State University as part of the Origins Symposium. For an episode aired on July 27, 2009, Venter was interviewed on his boat by BBC One for the first episode of TV show Bang Goes the Theory. [edit] Individual human genome sequencedOn September 4, 2007, a team led by Sam Levy published the first complete (six-billion-letter) genome of an individual human—Venter's own DNA sequence.[27] Some of the sequences in Venter's genome are associated with wet earwax,[31] increased risk of antisocial behavior, Alzheimer's and cardiovascular diseases.[32] This publication was especially interesting since it contained a diploid instead of a haploid genome and shows promise for personalized medicine via genotyping.[original research?] The Human Reference Genome Browser (HuRef) is a Web application for the navigation and analysis of Venter's recently published genome. The HuRef database consists of approximately 32 million DNA reads sequenced using microfluidic Sanger sequencing, assembled into 4,528 scaffolds and 4.1 million DNA variations identified by genome analysis. These variants include single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), block substitutions, short and large indels, and structural variations like insertions, deletions, inversions[clarification needed] and copy number changes. The browser enables scientists to navigate the HuRef genome assembly and sequence variations, and to compare it with the NCBI human build 36 assembly in the context of the NCBI and Ensembl annotations. The browser provides a comparative view between NCBI and HuRef consensus sequences, the sequence multi-alignment of the HuRef assembly, Ensembl and dbSNP annotations, HuRef variants, and the underlying variant evidence and functional analysis. The interface also represents the haplotype blocks from which diploid genome sequence can be inferred and the relation of variants to gene annotations. The display of variants and gene annotations are linked to external public resources including dbSNP, Ensembl, Online Mendelian Inheritance in Man (OMIM) and Gene Ontology (GO). Users can search the HuRef genome using HUGO gene names, Ensembl and dbSNP identifiers, HuRef contig or scaffold locations, or NCBI chromosome locations. Users can then easily and quickly browse any genomic region via the simple and intuitive pan and zoom controls; furthermore relevant data in specific loci can be exported for further analysis. [edit] Mycoplasma laboratoriumVenter is seeking to patent the first life-form created by humanity, possibly to be named Mycoplasma laboratorium.[33] There is speculation that this line of research could lead to producing bacteria that have been engineered to perform specific reactions, e.g. produce fuels, make medicines, combat global warming, etc.[34] [edit] Selected bibliographyVenter is an ISI highly cited researcher and has authored over 200 publications in scientific journals.[35]
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