NASA and JCVI host symposium on the evolution of Earth and Life

On May 12th and 13th, the J. Craig Venter Institute in San Diego will be hosting a NASA Astrobiology Institute-funded symposium titled “Paleobiology in the genomics era.” Paleobiology is the study of the origins and evolution of life and, by nature, is interdisciplinary. The goal is to bring...

JCVI Supports Human Mircrobiome Body Site Experts with Shotgun Data Analysis

Members of the Human Microbiome Project (HMP) Consortium (see http://commonfund.nih.gov/hmp and http://www.hmpdacc.org for more information on the project and partners) including human microbiome body site experts gathered for a virtual Jamboree January 19th. The fully online-based Jamboree has...

The Microbiome of Esophageal Cancer

In anticipation of the International Human Microbiome Congress, our group has diligently worked to generate data to present for our HMP demo project studying the microbiome of patients who have developed esophageal cancer, gastrointestinal reflux disease, and barrett’s esophagus.  We...

A Look Back at 2010 at the JCVI…

As the J. Craig Venter Institute (JCVI) soars into its 19th year, we reflect on the past year of highlights and accomplishments to mark the close 2010 and look forward to more significant scientific advances in 2011. JCVI Top 10 of 2010 ... 1. First Synthetic Cell: Fifteen years in the...

Holiday Art

In a relatively unknown place, on the 3rd floor of JCVI in Rockville, MD, is a small fungal room where art meets science (and of course where all our fungal research takes place). Fungus often gets such a bad reputation for being gross and somewhat ‘standard’. We fungal folks know better and I...

Insights gained from influenza genomic sequence data: frequent intrasubtype reassortment

Studies using whole genomic influenza sequence data produced by the Influenza Genome Sequencing Project (IGSP) have focused mainly on influenza evolution and epidemiology. For instance, IGSP data has provided important insight into the frequency of intrasubtype reassortment (in which reassortment...

2011 Internship Program Updated

The 2011 JCVI Internship Program is open to accept spring and summer applications. The application process includes the submission of a resume, essay and transcripts as one PDF file via our online application site. We no longer require letters of recommendation. Information about the 2011...

Starting the Atlantic Crossing

Wednesday November 17th 2010 On November 10th Sorcerer II set sail from Valencia Spain to start the sail back to America.  The first leg was a 3 day sail down the Spanish coast to Gibraltar.  Coastline to Gibraltar John showing the delivery crew around Sorcerer...

Scientist Spotlight: Meet Vanessa Hayes

Geneticist Vanessa Hayes does not think small nor move slowly—from completing her post doc in six months (the US National average is 3 to 7 years) to completing the first South African Genome Project in 2010 with her goal set on defining the extent of human diversity in all populations, she is on...

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