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Research Team led by JCVI Scientists Uncover More Complexity and Detail in Southern African Genomic Diversity
ROCKVILLE, MD — March 14, 2013 — A team of international researchers led by scientists from the J. Craig Venter Institute (JCVI) has published a study detailing the degree of genomic diversity of several southern Africa populations. These populations are some of the oldest human lineages but are also some of the most diverse because of the influx of outside non-African populations. The team, led by JCVI's Vanessa Hayes, Ph.D., published their study in March 14 edition of the open access...
First Sampling in Plymouth Reveals Interesting Blooms — BBC Cameras capture it all!
After a couple of days in Plymouth we were ready for the first of two intense sampling days together with the Plymouth Marine Laboratory (PML). We had heard rumours about blooms of Phaeocystis, a conspicuous bloom-former in the North Sea and English Channel. When it blooms, it turns the water reddish-brown in color, and the degradation of the gelatinous colonies may result in foaming. It was another beautiful sunny morning in Plymouth when we left Sutton Harbour and headed for one of...
3rd Minimal Cell Workshop
View complete playlist for the workshop on YouTube. Day 1 — September 15, 2023 Time PDT Video Title Presenter Organization PI 5:00 - 5:20 Welcome and introduction John Glass (jglass@jcvi.org) JCVI John Glass 5:20 - 5:35 Building the in silico minimal cell: Achievements and a rallying call for experimental data...
Energy Department Awards $9 Million for Energy Related Genomic Research
April 24, 2003 ROCKVILLE, MD -- Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham announced today that the department will increase its funding to the Institute for Biological Energy Alternatives (IBEA) for research to better understand microbial communities and to develop new, biological methods to capture carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and to produce hydrogen. The department will fund IBEA, headed by J. Craig Venter, Ph.D., $3 million per year for the next three years. This is in addition to...
Unlocking the Mysteries of the Microbiome
In the early 2000s, JCVI researchers pioneered in the exploration of the human microbiome, the community of microbes that live in and on the human body. Originally while at The Institute for Genomic Research (TIGR, now part of JCVI) Drs. Craig Venter and Hamilton Smith were awarded a grant from DARPA to examine the microbes found in the human gut. This work was carried out by researchers at JCVI and published in 2006 in Science. While this team had previously published 16S surveys of the...
Human gene essentiality.
A gene can be defined as essential when loss of its function compromises viability of the individual (for example, embryonic lethality) or results in profound loss of fitness. At the population level, identification of essential genes is accomplished by observing intolerance to loss-of-function variants. Several computational methods are available to score gene essentiality, and recent progress has been made in defining essentiality in the non-coding genome. Haploinsufficiency is emerging...
The human noncoding genome defined by genetic diversity.
Understanding the significance of genetic variants in the noncoding genome is emerging as the next challenge in human genomics. We used the power of 11,257 whole-genome sequences and 16,384 heptamers (7-nt motifs) to build a map of sequence constraint for the human species. This build differed substantially from traditional maps of interspecies conservation and identified regulatory elements among the most constrained regions of the genome. Using new Hi-C experimental data, we describe a...
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...
In the News
We docked in the Volvo Ocean Race Village for a week. It was very exciting to be so close to all of the activities surrounding the race. Over the week Dr. Venter and Karolina and I were interviewed by many local and national TV, radio stations and newspapers. Here are some links to a few of the news stories: Story on Xconomy; Story on TV4play.se. Dr. Venter was also part of a half-day symposium moderated by his good friend Dr. Norrby and attended by the King of Sweden. After the lectures...
Ancient noncoding elements conserved in the human genome.
Cartilaginous fishes represent the living group of jawed vertebrates that diverged from the common ancestor of human and teleost fish lineages about 530 million years ago. We generated approximately 1.4x genome sequence coverage for a cartilaginous fish, the elephant shark (Callorhinchus milii), and compared this genome with the human genome to identify conserved noncoding elements (CNEs). The elephant shark sequence revealed twice as many CNEs as were identified by whole-genome comparisons...