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J. Craig Venter Institute Teaches Students about Genomics at Annual High Tech Fair
In January, JCVI was one of more than 40 San Diego STEM-related organizations who participated in the Fleet Science Center’s annual High Tech Fair. This year more than 3,000 local middle and high-school students, their teachers, and families descended upon Balboa Park throughout the two-day event to engage in exciting and interactive educational experiences. Students learned about local research being done in a variety of fields and had the opportunity to speak with scientists about...
Venter Institute Researchers Tackle the Growing Concern of Antibiotic Resistant Bacterial Infections with Genomic, Phage Approaches
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that each year in the United States two million people acquire antibiotic resistant bacterial infections that lead to 23,000 deaths. Antibiotic resistance affects people of all ages and seriously impacts the healthcare, veterinary, and agriculture industries, making it one of the world’s most urgent public health crises. Because of this, the CDC has labeled certain multidrug-resistant bacteria, “superbugs.” Derrick...
J. Craig Venter Institute Inspires Kids on “Take Your Child to Work Day”
Last month when my kindergarten-aged daughter brought home a note from school to dress up as their future career choice, I was pleasantly surprised to hear from her that she aspired to be a scientist just like me. So, we dug through my clothes and found her an old lab coat and decorated the collars with some biology-themed pins. When I heard JCVI was hosting a “take your child to work day” I knew she would be very excited to visit. She and the other children were greeted with...
Deep sequencing of 10,000 human genomes.
We report on the sequencing of 10,545 human genomes at 30×-40× coverage with an emphasis on quality metrics and novel variant and sequence discovery. We find that 84% of an individual human genome can be sequenced confidently. This high-confidence region includes 91.5% of exon sequence and 95.2% of known pathogenic variant positions. We present the distribution of over 150 million single-nucleotide variants in the coding and noncoding genome. Each newly sequenced genome contributes an...
Major New Policy Study Will Explore Risks, Benefits of Synthetic Genomics
ROCKVILLE, MD - June 28, 2005 — Today three organizations, the J. Craig Venter Institute (Venter Institute), the Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS), and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), announced a new project to examine the societal implications of synthetic genomics, a new field involving the development of viruses and cells using designed and engineered DNA. The 15-month study will explore the risks and benefits of this emerging technology, as...
JCVI Associate Professor Marcelo Freire elected to the 2022 class of AAAS Fellows
LA JOLLA, CA—January 31, 2023—The J. Craig Venter Institute (JCVI) announced today that Marcelo Freire, DDS, PhD, DMedSc, an associate professor in its Genomic Medicine Group, has been elected as a new member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Dr. Freire is being honored for pioneering contributions to research in decoding the molecular basis of chronic inflammation, in the class of 2022 AAAS Fellows. Election as a Fellow honors members whose efforts on...
The Sorcerer II Global Ocean Sampling expedition: expanding the universe of protein families.
Metagenomics projects based on shotgun sequencing of populations of micro-organisms yield insight into protein families. We used sequence similarity clustering to explore proteins with a comprehensive dataset consisting of sequences from available databases together with 6.12 million proteins predicted from an assembly of 7.7 million Global Ocean Sampling (GOS) sequences. The GOS dataset covers nearly all known prokaryotic protein families. A total of 3,995 medium- and large-sized clusters...
JCVI President, Karen Nelson Elected to National Academy of Sciences
(LA JOLLA, CA)—May 3, 2017—The J. Craig Venter Institute (JCVI) announced today that Karen E. Nelson, Institute President and Head of Microbiome Research, has been elected as a new member to the National Academy of Sciences (NAS). Nelson was one of the 84 new members and 21 foreign associates elected in recognition of their distinguished and continuing achievements in original research. Those elected today bring the total number of active members to 2,290 and the total number of...
Hamilton O. Smith, M.D., Synthetic Biology Pioneer and Nobel Laureate, to Step Down from Daily Duties at J. Craig Venter Institute
(La Jolla, California)—December 22, 2020—Hamilton O. Smith, M.D., Nobel Laureate, distinguished professor and scientific director of the J. Craig Venter Institute (JCVI) Synthetic Biology Group, is retiring from daily duties at the Institute effective December 31, 2020. Dr. Smith will continue advancing JCVI’s mission through authorship and an advisory role as a professor emeritus. Reflecting on this moment, J. Craig Venter, Ph.D. said, “It has been an honor of a lifetime...