Study Signals Bat Flu Unlikely to Jump to Humans

Bats species harbor a large number of viruses that cause human disease.  So, when the first influenza sequences from Guatemalan little yellow-shouldered bats were uncovered in 2009, the question arose of whether bat influenza viruses pose a threat to human health.  A collaborative project...

H3Africa Update

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the UK-based Wellcome Trust, in partnership with the African Society of Human Genetics, developed a program to foster genomic and epidemiological research in African scientific institutions. The laboratory and computational infrastructure available to...

J. Craig Venter at Recent Google Zeitgeist Conference [VIDEO]

Dr. J. Craig Venter recently spoke at a Google Zeitgeist conference in Arizona where he spoke on advances in genomics, synthetic biology, and DNA as the software of life.

La Jolla Community Celebrates Art and Science at Venter Institute Event

On Friday, September 12, the J. Craig Venter Institute (JCVI) hosted a reception at its La Jolla campus to celebrate the installation of “LIFE FORCE,” an original painting by San Diego-based artist and architect Fred Gemmell. This spectacular piece now hangs prominently in the entry of JCVI’s...

Understanding Complex Data through Better Visualization

Recently, researchers at JCVI reported on the Rhizoctonia solani mitochondrial genome which was the largest fungal mitochondrion to be sequenced to date. We showed that its unusually large size was probably due to the expansion of multiple genetic elements that populated the genome in somewhat of a...

JCVI Research Impact

JCVI ranks in the top 1% of research institutions worldwide for research impact based on an analysis of Elsevier and Thomson Reuters data. The ranking was done by looking at institutional publication reach as seen through the number of citations referencing...

Trapping Microbes 750 miles north of the Arctic Circle

About 1% of all microbes are “culturable” in the lab. They are some of the most stubborn organisms requiring special and specific nutrients as well as optimal temperatures and conditions. So, how do we get the “unculturables” to be “culturable”? We make bacteria “traps”, where we...

Thule, Greenland Year Two

Sequence data from the previous year allowed us to determine the overall microbial population in each site and this year we decided to focus on the Rich Lake site which seem to have representation of nearly all microbes found in the other sites. So lucky for us we only had to work on one site this...

Scientist Spotlight: Meet Sarah Highlander

Sarah Highlander PhD is an esteemed scientist and professor who joined JCVI in La Jolla this year. She comes from a long line of academically successful Professors, including a great uncle who was a University Dean. As a young child, Sarah was influenced by her parents: her mother was a...

Construction of an Escherichia coli genome with fewer codons sets records

The biggest synthetic genome so far has been made, with a smaller set of amino-acid-encoding codons than usual — raising the prospect of encoding proteins that contain unnatural amino-acid residues.

Public Health is the Next Big Thing at UC San Diego

Researchers have swapped the genome of gut germ E. coli for an artificial one

By creating a new genome, scientists could create organisms tailored to produce desirable compounds

Genetically modified bacteria-killing viruses used on patient for first time

Hair claimed to belong to Leonardo da Vinci to undergo DNA testing

Critics, however, argue that this effort is flawed from the beginning

Students learn about genomics, a life in science, at J. Craig Venter Institute