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J. Craig Venter Institute scientists awarded five-year, $5.7M grant from NIH to develop phage treatment
Phage research accelerates with the rise of antibiotic resistance to address increasingly prevalent and difficult to treat bacterial infections
Bringing cells to life … and to Minecraft: $30 million NSF grant to support whole-cell modeling at the Beckman Institute
Beckman researchers and collaborators received $30 million from the U.S. National Science Foundation to establish the NSF Science and Technology Center for Quantitative Cell Biology. The center will develop whole-cell models to transform our understanding of how cells function and share that knowledge with diverse communities through the popular computer game Minecraft.
NLM Selects Dr. Richard H. Scheuermann as Scientific Director for the National Library of Medicine
PolyBio Research Foundation Consortium & colleagues publishes Nature position paper on SARS-CoV-2 reservoir in Long COVID/PASC
Using AI to speed up vaccine development against Disease X
Artificial cells demonstrate that “life finds a way”
Family resemblance: How T cells could fight many coronaviruses at once
LJI researchers work to head off future pandemics by uncovering key similarities between SARS-CoV-2 and common cold coronaviruses
Scientists aim to develop vaccine against all deadly coronaviruses
$8 million NIH grant supports effort to avert next pandemic
What are the Drivers of Chronic Infectious Disease?
A $1 million grant from the Steven & Alexandra Cohen Foundation will launch a UC San Diego-led national effort to more deeply study tissue samples from patients with conditions ranging from long COVID-19 and relapsed Lyme disease to chronic fatigue syndrome
The Tissue Analysis Pipeline will be directed by scientists at UC San Diego and the J. Craig Venter Institute
BullFrog AI Partners with J. Craig Venter Institute to Develop Colorectal Cancer Therapeutic
Collaboration seeks to develop an oncolytic virus that incorporates a novel, precision-targeted approach to improve safety and efficacy
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Scientist Spotlight: Hamilton O. Smith and Clyde A. Hutchison III
Editor’s note: Clyde Hutchison died on September 27, 2025. Less than a month later, Hamilton Smith died on October 25, 2025. This post memorializes their dear friendship and the quest to construct the first bacterium with a synthetic genome in 2010. Their friendship endured and their work...
Happy DNA Day!
This past March, we had a great time participating in the science programs in San Diego. We ended the month with the SD Science Festival with over 30,000 participants. It was such a busy day - I forgot to take pictures. The venue was Petco Park with hundreds of exhibits and hands-on experiences. We...
Recomb - Computational Proteomics
I recently attended the Recomb satellite conference on Computational Proteomics (downloads for talk and poster) in San Diego, CA. It was a kind of homecoming for me. I was a computational proteomics researcher at UCSD as a grad student with Vineet Bafna. Many of my classmates were still there, as...
A Positive Charge
I’m thinking of the day’s schedule school visit, the activity and the positive charge it will produce in me and the students. I get so excited during our school visits. It’s like the feeling I get on Saturday morning while watching my favorite cartoons. (Yes, I still watch...
We Had Fun with Genomics!
Wow! It’s been an exciting week!! Crystal Snowden and I flew to San Diego Friday, March 5th – jumped off the plane and the fun began! We went straight to the lab and set up for BEWiSE and prepped for Expanding Your Horizons (EYH). We are really fortunate to have such a great team in the San...
Scientist Spotlight: Orianna Bretschger
Most of us have never thought about how to make more water or cleaner water or develop unique sources of energy but that’s exactly what Orianna Bretschger does at JCVI. She is working at the intersection of engineering, physics, and biology to design small machines powered by bacteria that can...
Having Fun with Genomics
I am the generation after landing on the moon. As a child, I don’t recall having any science inspiration. I was fortunate to have parents that made it possible for me and my siblings to get a very good education. I went to a small parochial school outside of Washington, DC. It was a great school...
AGBT, Marco Island 2010
I just got back from AGBT in Marco Island, Florida and I am still in awe. As noted in the name, this conference highlights advances in both genome biology and technology. The biology seemed to be very human genome centric. Many of the talks presented full genome sequences of cancer genomes or...
Influenza H1N1pdm sequencing project overview
Since 2004, the JCVI Influenza Genome Sequencing Project, funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), has sequenced thousands of human, swine, and avian influenza isolates from collections around the world to provide researchers with a better understanding of the...
High Impact Science in Antarctica
Big changes in store for the Mertz Polynya: in February 2010 iceberg 9B9 collided with the Mertz Glacier, breaking the 70 km floating glacier off at the base. The Mertz Polynya was extensivley sampled by scientists at the JCVI in the summer of 2007/08, and this metagenomic survey will form an important baseline for evaluating on-going changes in the area.
Even Synthetic Life Forms With a Tiny Genome Can Evolve
By watching “minimal” cells regain the fitness they lost, researchers are testing whether a genome can be too simple to evolve.
Privacy concerns sparked by human DNA accidentally collected in studies of other species
Two research teams warn that human genomic “bycatch” can reveal private information
Scientists Unveil a More Diverse Human Genome
The “pangenome,” which collated genetic sequences from 47 people of diverse ethnic backgrounds, could greatly expand the reach of personalized medicine.
First human ‘pangenome’ aims to catalogue genetic diversity
Researchers release draft results from an ongoing effort to capture the entirety of human genetic variation.
Scientists Create the Smallest-Ever Moving Cell
Just two genes get tiny synthetic cells moving, offering clues to life’s evolution.
From Sequencing to Sailing: Three Decades of Adventure with Craig Venter
In a plenary public appearance at the Molecular and Precision Med TRI-CON event in San Diego, a relaxed Venter reflected on his career highlights, controversies and future priorities for genomic medicine.
Synthesizing life on the planet
What’s the smallest number of genes that cells need to grow and reproduce? Is it possible to synthesize minimal genomes and insert them into cells? What do minimal genomes teach us about life? An interview with John Glass, Ph.D.
Top scientists join forces to study leading theory behind long COVID
Several JCVI scientists will be contributing to the newly launched Long Covid Research Initiative — a collaboration of researchers, clinicians, and patients working to rapidly study and treat long Covid.
Hunting for deep-ocean plastics
Through the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, National Deep Submergence Facility, JCVI's Erin Garza, Ph.D. joins a deep sea expedition to search for ocean plastics aboard the HOV Alvin.
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