Newsletter update: May 5, 2026
Since the last newsletter, GeneDx stock tumbled, Craig Venter died, and Twist Bioscience announced it will settle a class action lawsuit for $17.1 million.
This week on the podcast we’re remembering J. Craig Venter, the renegade genomics scientist who tried to beat the publicly funded Human Genome Project with a private company — and nearly succeeded. He died last week at 79.
My guest is Jamie Shreeve, author of The Genome War, who shadowed Venter for two years during the race to sequence the human genome. Venter conveniently provided a framework for evaluating his legacy:
“I want to be judged on having changed things by a substantial period of time,” he told Shreeve. “What was [Albert] Einstein’s impact in terms of knowledge and information? How much longer would it have taken us to get to where we are, had he not existed? You could quantify that as an Einstein Unit. So how much is a Venter Unit worth?”
We tried to answer that question — and we’re also revealing, for the first time, a James Watson take on Venter so brutal that Shreeve left it out of the book.
In genomics industry news, first-quarter earnings continue to roll in, driving news flow over the past week.
Illumina raised its full-year revenue guidance following 5 percent growth year over year in the first quarter. NovaSeq X sales, especially to clinical customers, drove results, with more than 80 instrument placements, up from approximately 60 a year ago. The company’s board has also authorized an additional $1.50 billion in share repurchases.
GeneDx shares fell nearly 50 percent in Tuesday morning trading after the genomic testing company said it was slashing its full-year 2026 revenue guidance. First quarter revenue was $12 million below expectations.
In its fiscal second quarter, Twist Bioscience saw revenue rise 19 percent over the prior year to $110.7 million and raised guidance. The firm also disclosed it has reached a deal to settle a securities class action suit for $17.1 million. The suit, filed in 2022, alleged that top Twist officials, including CEO and Cofounder Emily Leproust, misled investors about the company’s DNA manufacturing capabilities and the costs associated with making its products.
Sweden’s Moleculent raised $20 million to expand its US Operations and launch a commercial version of its instrument tracking cell-cell interactions in tissue.
Caris Life Sciences won approval from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) MolDX program for its ChromoSeq Myeloid Cancer test.
Eye on the week ahead:
I’m travelling to San Jose, California to attend the SynBioBeta conference, a yearly showcase of synthetic biology technology. I’m moderating a panel on the future of synthetic DNA manufacturing Tuesday and staying through Wednesday to cover the latest in synbio. AI is a major theme this year: I’m particularly interested in hearing Eric Kauderer-Abrams, head of biology at Anthropic, who will discuss AI’s role in drug discovery with Marc Tessier-Lavigne, CEO of Xaira, another AI-based company.
Again, the Venter episode drops Friday. You won’t want to miss what Watson said.
Andy