Infamous geneticist and decoder of the human genome J. Craig Venter dies at 79

Human genome decoder J. Craig Venter dies at 79

By Claire Cameron

J. Craig Venter, the scientist who raced to decode the human genome, has died at 79.

Venter rose to fame in the field for publishing the first bacterial genome ever decoded, along with a list on gene annotations, in 1995. The achievement kicked off an age of discovery in genetics, with researchers racing to decode the genomes of other pathogens—and eventually, animals.

As the founder of Celera Genomics in 1998, Venter honed his method of decoding—whole genome shotgun sequencing—which can rapidly sequence different parts of the genome at the same time and then uses machine learning to reassemble them in the right order. The technique allowed him to enter the race to decode the human genome late.

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Celera went up against an international, U.S. government-backed research group known as The Human Genome Project in a competition that spurred each side on until Venter agreed to a draw with the group. The Project was declared complete in 2003 with 92 percent of the human genome decoded; the majority of the remaining genome was sequenced by 2021. Venter wrote about the effort in an article for Scientific American, which can be read here.

Venter also led an effort to explore the world’s oceans and trace the genetics of marine microbial communities. The first Global Ocean Sampling Expedition, which used Venter’s own yacht, circumnavigated the globe between 2005 and 2006.

Venter began his academic career in 1969 at a California community college, College of San Mateo, before transferring to the University of California, San Diego. Then-President Barack Obama awarded Venter the National Medal of Science in 2008 for his genetic work. Afterward, he reflected in the piece for Scientific American that the achievement 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 founded by Venter, said in a statement to media that he had been hospitalized after complications tied to cancer treatment. He died on Wednesday, April 29.

Editor’s note: This is a developing story and will be updated.

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