Venter, J. Craig
Biography
J. Craig Venter, biologist and genomic research pioneer, was born in Salt Lake City, Utah in 1946. Following military service in Vietnam, he studied biochemistry as an undergraduate at the University of California, San Diego, where he also received a Ph.D. in Physiology and Pharmacology in 1975. He joined the faculty of the Medical School of State University of New York at Buffalo in 1976, joining its affiliated Roswell Park Cancer Institute in 1982 as Professor and Associate Chief Cancer Research Scientist. Beginning in 1982, and for the next decade, Dr. Venter headed various sections of NIH's National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.
In 1992 he founded The Institute for Genomic Research (known as TIGR) where he and colleagues became the first to successfully sequence the genome of an entire organism. Dr. Venter's Celera Genomics, founded in 1998, used a strategy known as the whole genome shotgun approach to compete with the publicly-funded Human Genome Project, which served to accelerate the mapping of the whole human genome by 2000. Dr. Venter founded the J. Craig Venter Institute (JCVI) in 2006 through the merger of several predecessor enterprises. A leader in genomic research, the JCVI announced in January 2008 that it had reated the largest synthetically derived DNA structure, advancing it towards its goal of creating a living cell based on an entirely synthetic genome. In September 2007, the JCVI announced the sequencing of Dr. Venter's genome, the first sequencing of an individual's genome. In 2010, scientists at the JCVI sequenced the genome of Mycoplasma mycoides, which was then inserted into a cell, making this cell the first with a completely synthetic genome. In 2022, the JCVI sold its La Jolla facility to UC San Diego. In addition to the JCVI, Dr. Ventner is a co-founder of Synthetic Genomics, which aims to produce clean fuels and biochemicals from genetically modified microorganisms. The company began a collaboration with ExxonMobile in 2009. Although he retired from the board of Synthetic Genomics in 2018, the engineering of microalgae to produce clean biolfuels continues to be one of Dr. Ventner’s research interests. Finally, Dr. Ventner collaborated with two colleagues in 2014 to create Human Longevity, Inc., which aims to use genomics to extend the human lifespan. He retired from this company in 2018.
Dr. Ventner is the author of several books, including Life at the Speed of Light: From the Double Helix to the Dawn of Digital Life (2013), The Voyage of Sorcerer II: The Expedition that Unlocked the Secrets of the Ocean’s Microbiome (2023), and an autobiography, A Life Decoded (2007).
Among Dr. Venter's numerous awards and honors are the American Academy of Microbiology Fellow (1997), the American Chemical Society, Division of Biochemical Technology David Perlman Memorial Lectureship Award (2000), and the U.S. State Department, Secretary's Open Forum Public Service Award (2001), the Biotechnology Heritage Award of the Biotechnologoy Industry Organization and the Chemical Heritage Foundation (2001), Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory’s Double Helix Medal (2008), the National Medal of Science (2008),and the Dickson Prize in Medicine (2011). He was on Time magazine's 2007 and 2008 Time 100 list of the most influential people in the world. Dr. Venter is a member of the American Society of Human Genetics, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Society of Microbiology, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.