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Individual genomes instead of race for personalized medicine.
The cost of sequencing and genotyping is aggressively decreasing, enabling pervasive personalized genomic screening for drug reactions. Drug-metabolizing genes have been characterized sufficiently to enable practitioners to go beyond simplistic ethnic characterization and into the precisely targeted world of personal genomics. We examine six drug-metabolizing genes in J. Craig Venter and James Watson, two Caucasian men whose genomes were recently sequenced. Their genetic differences underscore...
Methanococcus jannaschii genome: revisited.
Analysis of genomic sequences is necessarily an ongoing process. Initial gene assignments tend (wisely) to be on the conservative side (Venter, 1996). The analysis of the genome then grows in an iterative fashion as additional data and more sophisticated algorithms are brought to bear on the data. The present report is an emendation of the original gene list of Methanococcus jannaschii (Bult et al., 1996). By using a somewhat more updated database and more relaxed (and operator-intensive)...
Whole-genome shotgun assembly and comparison of human genome assemblies.
We report a whole-genome shotgun assembly (called WGSA) of the human genome generated at Celera in 2001. The Celera-generated shotgun data set consisted of 27 million sequencing reads organized in pairs by virtue of end-sequencing 2-kbp, 10-kbp, and 50-kbp inserts from shotgun clone libraries. The quality-trimmed reads covered the genome 5.3 times, and the inserts from which pairs of reads were obtained covered the genome 39 times. With the nearly complete human DNA sequence [National Center...
Genome Solver Annotation Workshops
The Human Microbiome Project (HMP) has created a wealth of new questions for scientists. However, the current rate of microbial DNA sequencing far outpaces the ability of experts to analyze the genomes and metagenomes that have resulted from the HMP, creating a need for additional hands and minds to deal with the myriad of questions. This need in turn creates an opportunity for undergraduates to get involved in research on the HMP. Through the National Science Foundation (NSF) TUES...
J. Craig Venter Institute-led Team Awarded 5-year, $10.7 M Grant from U.S. Department of Energy to Optimize Metabolic Networks in Diatoms, Enabling Next-Generation Biofuels and Bioproducts
(LA JOLLA, CA)—October 3, 2017—Scientists, led by the J. Craig Venter Institute (JCVI), a not-for-profit genomic research organization, were recently awarded a 5-year, $10.7 million grant by the United States Department of Energy, Office of Science, Biological and Environmental Research (BER), BER Genomic Science Program to optimize metabolic networks in model photosynthetic microalgae, called diatoms. The aim of this work is to substantially increase oil, or lipid production, enabling...
Scientists from J. Craig Venter Institute and Scripps Institution of Oceanography Publish Study Describing Function and Mechanisms of Diatom Centromeres
(SAN DIEGO, CA)—July 6, 2017—A research team from the J. Craig Venter Institute (JCVI) and Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California San Diego have published a paper today describing the DNA sequences from the centromeres of a type of microalgae, called diatoms. The research by first author Scripps Oceanography’s Rachel E. Diner, and senior author JCVI’s Philip D. Weyman, Ph.D., was published in the journal Proceedings from the National Academy of Sciences...
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 foreign...
Battling Infectious Diseases with 3-D Structures
(CHICAGO) April 25, 2017 — An international team of scientists led by Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine has determined the 3-D atomic structure of more than 1,000 proteins that are potential drug and vaccine targets to combat some of the world’s most dangerous emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases. These experimentally determined structures have been deposited into the World-Wide Protein Data Bank, an archive supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH),...
Teams at Venter Institute and Synthetic Genomics, Inc. Successfully Engineer 16S rRNA using One Step Process Combining CRISPR/Cas9 Systems and Yeast Recombination Machinery
(LA JOLLA, CA)—August 4, 2016—Researchers from the J. Craig Venter Institute (JCVI) and Synthetic Genomics, Inc. (SGI) have published research describing a method for engineering Mycoplasma mycoides 16S ribosomal RNA (rRNA) using a one-step process that combines CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing system with yeast recombination machinery. The rRNAs are some of the most conserved genes in all branches of life and thus are used to trace evolutionary history. While they are fundamental to the process...
J. Craig Venter Institute and University of California San Diego Release New Report: “Policy and Regulatory Issues for Gene Drives in Insects,” to Aid Scientists, Regulators and Others in Approaches to Safely Advance this Promising Area of Science
(LA JOLLA, CA)—August 2, 2016—The J. Craig Venter Institute (JCVI) Policy Group and researchers at the University of California San Diego (UC San Diego), today released a new report titled, “Policy and Regulatory Issues for Gene Drives in Insects”. The report outlines specific suggestions for researchers and research funders, United States regulators and policymakers, and international organizations, that could help advance this promising new scientific approach for combatting insect...