Media Center

29-Mar-2021
Press Release

Genes necessary for cell division in modern bacterial cells identified

Discovery may help shape understanding of primitive cell division

25-Mar-2021
Collaborator Release

Scientists find evidence that novel coronavirus infects the mouth’s cells

NIH-funded findings point to a role for saliva in SARS-CoV-2 transmission.

18-Mar-2021
Press Release

Scientists map how iron, a critical mineral for survival, is processed by algae, a cornerstone of the ocean food web

Nearly forty proteins identified in the intracellular process, helping to build a conceptual overview of how iron is allocated within diatom cells

25-Feb-2021
Press Release

J. Craig Venter Institute Scientists to Investigate Role of Opioid Abuse in HIV and HIV-Associated Neurocognitive Disorders Pathogenesis through $4.7M NIDA Grant

Study aims to identify candidate molecules to regulate HIV infection in the central nervous system in patients abusing opioids

27-Jan-2021
Press Release

Influenza A Virus Discovered in Heart Muscle Tissue Causing Damage Long After It Has Cleared from the Lungs

Strategies to inhibit necrotic cell death or to prevent mitochondrial damage should be pursued as possible therapies to reduce cardiac damage during influenza infections

22-Dec-2020
Press Release

Hamilton O. Smith, M.D., Synthetic Biology Pioneer and Nobel Laureate, to Step Down from Daily Duties at J. Craig Venter Institute

Dr. Smith will maintain advisory role as professor emeritus

17-Dec-2020
Collaborator Release

Scientists set a path for field trials of gene drive organisms

As genetically engineered organisms ramp up, a multidisciplinary coalition offers a framework for ethical, socially engaged and transparent field practices

27-Oct-2020
Collaborator Release

Study reveals mouth as primary source of COVID-19 infection, spread

UNC-Chapel Hill, NIH identify sites in the oral cavity where coronavirus can take hold

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McMurdo Sound

It took another day for the storm to blow itself out, but by Tuesday the wind and driving snow had abated, and we drove our Pisten Bully back out to our temporary shelter near Cape Evans. It took several hours of digging to clear the snow away from our vehicles, but once we started driving away...

Scientist Spotlight: Greg Wanger

Greg Wanger was 3.7 km below the Earth’s surface, trapped not only underground but also in a country distant from his native lands of Canada and Liechtenstein. He looked around him. It was very hot and smelled like rotten eggs. As many people do during their graduate careers, Greg pondered...

Digging out from the storm

The next day offered more snow and wind: we still needed handheld radios anytime we ventured between the warming hut and any of the vehicles. The wind was so strong that snow began drifting up through the dive hole in the warming hut, and the windows completely glazed over with snow. At one...

Out onto the ice

It took an enormous amount of effort, but on Thursday we ventured out onto the sea ice with our train of sleds and snow machines. The tucker is our strongest (and slowest) vehicle, and it is pulling both our yellow research sled and a pair of snowmobiles. The red Pisten-Bully is pulling a...

Around Mac-town

We are now fully packed and our mobile research sled is ready to go. We are waiting for some final repairs on the Pisten-Bully which will pull our supply sled. The mobile laboratory sled will be pulled by the Sno-Cat Tucker, which also has cab space for six (riding in the mobile lab would...

Ice diatoms!

Today has been a day of preparations, as tomorrow we hope to leave McMurdo Station and head out on the sea ice. Our mobile sled is almost ready for deployment: the carpenters who work for the US Antarctic Program are quite amazing, and our sled has filtration racks for separating different...

Sea-ice class

Today Abigail Noble and I took a Hagglund transporter out onto the Ross Sea to learn the basics of sea ice safety and ice dynamics. The sea ice on McMurdo Sound can be 2 meters thick, but this ice is constantly changing, and when you drive along its surface, you can't assume that it is...

Happy Camp

Our project on the Ross Sea will take us far from heated facilities of McMurdo Station, so all members of our team need to attend "Happy Camp", a two day course on snow camping and basic Antarctic survival. Happy Camp is held out on the McMurdo Ice Shelf, and it is an immersion program in...

McMurdo Station

Entering McMurdo is like entering a modern mining town: lots of exposed rock and unpaved streets, above ground utilities and bare-bones architecture. Utilitarian. From the airport we were taken to a briefing room, introduced to our science coordinators, and given our shcedules. Since I am...

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13-Jun-2025
GEN

J. Craig Venter Describes a Human Genomics Revolution Still In Progress

Despite profound impact on bio-medical research, progress in understanding has been slow

02-Apr-2025
The San Diego Union-Tribune

Scientist renowned for study of adolescent brains named president of J. Craig Venter Institute

Anders Dale says he will move roughly $10 million in NIH funding from UCSD to JCVI.

12-Dec-2024
The Scientist

Mirror Bacteria Research Poses Significant Risks, Dozens of Scientists Warn

Synthetic biologists make artificial cells, but one particular kind isn’t worth the risk.

28-Apr-2024
Chemical & Engineering News

Can CRISPR help stop African Swine Fever?

Gene editing could create a successful vaccine to protect against the viral disease that has killed close to 2 million pigs globally since 2021.

17-Jan-2024
Grow by Ginkgo

Getting Under the Skin

Amid an insulin crisis, one project aims to engineer microscopic insulin pumps out of a skin bacterium.

24-Oct-2023
Noema

Planet Microbe

There are more organisms in the sea, a vital producer of oxygen on Earth, than planets and stars in the universe.

29-Aug-2023
Vanity Fair

The Next Climate Change Calamity?: We’re Ruining the Microbiome, According to Human-Genome-Pioneer Craig Venter

In a new book (coauthored with Venter), a Vanity Fair contributor presents the oceanic evidence that human activity is altering the fabric of life on a microscopic scale.

21-Aug-2023
GEN

Lessons from the Minimal Cell

“Despite reducing the sequence space of possible trajectories, we conclude that streamlining does not constrain fitness evolution and diversification of populations over time. Genome minimization may even create opportunities for evolutionary exploitation of essential genes, which are commonly observed to evolve more slowly.”

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