Human genome decoder J. Craig Venter dies at 79
Scientist and medtech entrepreneur J. Craig Venter published the first bacterial genome ever decoded in 1995. The result heralded a new age of discovery for genetics
Geneticist J. Craig Venter in a photo from 2015.
K.C. Alfred/ The San Diego Union-Tribune via Getty Image
J. Craig Venter, the renowned scientist known for his role in decoding the human genome, has passed away at the age of 79.
Venter gained prominence in 1995 when he successfully published the first decoded bacterial genome, accompanied by gene annotations. This milestone marked the beginning of a new era in genetics, prompting researchers to decode the genomes of various pathogens and eventually animals.
In 1998, Venter founded Celera Genomics and refined his whole genome shotgun sequencing technique, which allows for the rapid sequencing of different genome sections simultaneously, later reassembling them in the correct order using machine learning. This approach enabled him to join the race to decode the human genome, albeit later than others.
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Celera competed against The Human Genome Project, an international, U.S. government-backed research group. Under pressure from the Clinton administration, Venter eventually agreed to a draw with the group, using his own genome as the sample. The Project was declared complete in 2003 with 92 percent of the human genome decoded, with the majority of the remainder sequenced by 2021. Venter detailed this effort in an article for Scientific American.
“Craig Venter was a force of nature and really an important though controversial figure,” said Sir John Hardy, a professor of neuroscience and group leader at the UK Dementia Research Institute at University College London. “The race to complete the human sequence was a testosterone-driven competition between the US and UK consortia with the big personalities of Francis Collins and Eric Lander on one side and Craig’s team on the other. There is no doubt that this competition sped things up enormously, ending in a score draw with both sides publishing simultaneously in Science and Nature.”
Venter also led initiatives to explore the genetics of marine microbial communities across the world’s oceans. Between 2005 and 2006, the first Global Ocean Sampling Expedition, using Venter’s yacht, circumnavigated the globe. He also pioneered synthetic genomes, creating the first self-replicating synthetic bacteria cell in 2010. Later in his career, he co-founded Human Longevity, Inc. in 2013, focusing on combating age-related diseases like Alzheimer’s.
“J. Craig Venter was a swashbuckling, restless pioneer of genome sequencing and synthetic biology,” remarked Roger Highfield, science director at the Science Museum Group in the UK. Highfield, who edited Venter’s memoir, A Life Decoded, added, “Craig was a divisive figure but had huge chutzpah and was always driven on by the science. He was never going to win diplomat of the year, but he was always straightforward.”
Venter began his academic journey in 1969 at the College of San Mateo in California before transferring to the University of California, San Diego. In 2008, President Barack Obama awarded him the National Medal of Science for his genetic research. Reflecting on this achievement in Scientific American, Venter mentioned it came after “years of never-ending work, criticism (from the outside world and even internally at my company), intervention by top science journal editors and even President [Bill] Clinton.”
“To be standing where history was being made that day was a very emotional and fulfilling experience,” he wrote.
The J. Craig Venter Institute, a nonprofit research group he founded, confirmed he was hospitalized due to complications from cancer treatment. He passed away on Wednesday, April 29.
Editor’s note: This is a developing story and will be updated.
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