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Surprising Symbiosis: Glassy-Winged Sharpshooter Eats With Friends
Like a celebrity living on mineral water, the glassy-wingedsharpshooter consumes only the dilute sap of woody plants — including grapevinesin California,which is feverishly working to prevent the insect's flight into prizedvineyards. Now, in a surprising study published in the June 6 issue of PublicLibrary of Science Biology (PLoS Biology), researchers at The Institute forGenomic Research (TIGR), the University of Arizona, and their colleagueshave discovered that the sharpshooter's deprivation diet is sneakilysupplemented by not one, but two co-dependent bacteria living inside its cells.
Gut Reaction: Researchers Define The Colon's Genome
For the first time, scientists describe the busy microbial world inside
Comparative sequence analysis of B. anthracis Ames Ancestor and a set of diverse B. anthracis strains.
Leading Department of Energy Genome Scientist to Direct Joint Marine Microbial Metagenomics Cyberinfrastructure Initiative
Dr. Paul Gilna Will Lead Moore Foundation-Funded Project Linking UC San Diego and Venter Institute
Government of Victoria, Australia and Venter Institute to Survey and Sequence Microbes in Soil and Bovine Digestive System
Environmental genomics approach expected to reveal biological diversity in lesser known ecosystems
MD Governor visits TIGR
Venter Institute Announces Summer Fellowship in Memory of Local Resident
Cookbook sales by student athletes contribute to Dan Stryer Fellowship for cancer research
Genomics-Based Vaccine Could Prevent Deadly Cattle Disease
Every year, East Coast fever destroys the small farmer's dream of escaping poverty in Africa. Killing more than a million cattle and costing some $200 million annually, this tick-borne disease rages across a dozen countries in eastern and central Africa. Now, an international team of scientists has taken the first major step toward a vaccine to prevent East Coast fever. Their work, published in the February 13-17 early online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, shows how genomics can generate pivotal new vaccines.
The J. Craig Venter Institute, The University of Washington, and The Johns Hopkins University Initiate Resequencing and Genotyping Projects to Help Identify Critical Disease Pathways
Research is Part of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute's Complimentary Resequencing and Genotyping Program
UC San Diego Partners with Venter Institute to Build Community Cyberinfrastructure for Advanced Marine Microbial Ecology Research and Analysis
Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation Awards $24.5 Million Grant
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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.
A journey to the center of our cells
Biologists are discovering the true nature of cells—and learning to build their own.
Dr. Hend Alqaderi on paving the way for women in science in the GCC
Hend Alqaderi, a JCVI collaborator and mentee to Marcelo Freire receives the L’Oréal-Unesco Women in Science award
Leonardo Da Vinci: New family tree spans 21 generations, 690 years, finds 14 living male descendants
The surprising results of a decade-long investigation by Alessandro Vezzosi and Agnese Sabato provide a strong basis for advancing a project researching Leonardo da Vinci's DNA.
Genome Research Papers on Meningococcal Recombination, Psoriasis Variants in China, More
Sailing the Seas in Search of Microbes
Projects aimed at collecting big data about the ocean’s tiniest life forms continue to expand our view of the seas.
What the Public Should Not Know
J. Craig Venter, PhD, argues scientists have “a moral obligation to communicate what they're doing to the public,” and that more studies deserve greater public criticism.
Scientists coax cells with the world’s smallest genomes to reproduce normally
The discovery could sharpen scientists’ understanding of which functions are crucial for normal cells and what the many mysterious genes in these organisms are doing
San Diego arts, health, science and youth groups to share $71M from Prebys Foundation
The J. Craig Venter Institute is the recipient of three awards totaling more than $1.5M to study SARS-CoV-2 and heart disease
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