J. Craig Venter, Genomics Renegade, Dies at 79

Venter was a principal figure in the race to sequence the human genome and a pioneer in modern genome biology.

J. Craig Venter, the genomics renegade whose race to sequence the human genome faster and cheaper than a government-funded international consortium reshaped modern biology, died April 29 in San Diego following complications from cancer treatment. He was 79.

Venter had been hospitalized for “unexpected side effects” from that cancer treatment, according to a statement from the J. Craig Venter Institute (JCVI.)

“Craig believed that science moves forward when people are willing to think differently, move decisively, and build what doesn’t yet exist,” JCVI President Anders Dale said in a statement. “His leadership and vision reshaped genomics and helped ignite synthetic biology.”

Venter was a principal figure in the race to sequence the human genome around the turn of the millennium. A participant in the Human Genome Project, he broke from the pack in 1998 to cofound Celera, a private enterprise backed by PerkinElmer which sought to finish the sequence ahead of the global effort.

The move — along with Venter’s patronizing suggestion that they could shift focus to the mouse genome — infuriated leaders of the publicly-funded HGP, who saw his plan to patent gene discoveries as a threat to open science. The rivalry between Venter and Francis Collins, the de facto leader of the HGP, became one of the most bitter feuds in modern science before the two sides agreed in 2000 to publish simultaneous draft genomes.

At Celera, his team pioneered the use of so-called “whole-genome shotgun” sequencing, which is the basis for most genome sequencing approaches today.

Following the draft genome, published in 2001, Venter published the first individual diploid human genome in 2007 and led construction of the first self-replicating synthetic genome.

In addition to founding JCVI, Venter co-founded Synthetic Genomics, Human Longevity, and Diploid Genomics.