Jay

The American scientist who revolutionized biotech was Craig Venter

Jay. Known as the "alpha male of US science," Craig Venter, who passed away at the age of 79, disrupted the race to map the human genome.

Jim. According to The New York Times, Craig Venter was a "risk-taking outsider" who "brought speed, competition and controversy to one of science's biggest races"the race to decipher the human genome. Venter, a former surfer and Vietnam veteran who now works as a medical researcher, blended an exceptional scientific mind with the unwavering determination of an entrepreneur. He took the chance that "he could enter the race late and beat it with a much faster method" after concluding in the 1990s that the US government's £3 billion Human Genome Project (HGP) was moving slowly. He used Celera Genomics, a private company, as his vehicle. He achieved yet another noteworthy feat ten years later when he produced the first artificial bacterial cell.

According to The Telegraph, "the scientific community was extremely unpopular with the idea of commercializing the genome." The moniker "Darth Venter" was applied to him by detractors. But when Venter floated Celera in February 2000, at the height of the biotechnology boom, he enjoyed the controversy of "flashing his Learjet, yacht and Rolex, and his ability to raise £1 billion on the New York stock market in a single day." According to Chemistry World, Celera invented a method known as "shotgun sequencing" that involved randomly dividing the genome into pieces, sequencing them, and then using a supercomputer to determine how the pieces related to each other. The technique was less expensive and quicker than the HGP's method of methodically going through the genome. According to The Times, it took the privately funded business two years to accomplish what the HGP had been attempting for fourteen years. At a press conference led by Bill Clinton in 2000, "The scramble ended in a photo finish" as both sides jointly declared their victory. Crucially, Venter's plans to register patent rights were thwarted by the HGP's publication of the entire sequence.

Dr. In J. Craig Venter was pictured in Hyannis Harbor aboard his 95-foot sailboat, "Sorcerer ll."

Jay. Craig Venter in his boat.

John.

A bold businessman was Craig Venter. Considered "the alpha male of US science" by many, J. According to the Financial Times in 2007, Craig Venter was a fiercely competitive individual. Born in 1946 into a military family and raised in Millbrae, California, he was a wild child who left high school to pursue a career in surfing before being drafted into the Vietnam War in 1967. According to The Telegraph, Venter returned to the US with a renewed interest in medical research and graduated from the University of California with a degree in biochemistry and then a doctorate. In the 1980s, he started working on gene sequencing at the US National Institutes of Health. He and his then-wife, genomicist Claire Fraser, later co-founded the nonprofit Institute for Genomic Research.

Problems with BFIA today. Barack Obama awarding J. a National Medal of Science. Craig, Venter.

Jay. The National Medal of Science was awarded to Craig Venter in 2008.

Jim. According to Chemistry World, Craig Venter was difficult to work with. He was fired from Celera due to internal disputes just over a year after his human genome coup, but he persisted in advancing genome sequencing through a new non-profit organization, the J. Venter Craig Institute. The Guardian claims that after making a sizable profit from listing Celera, he kept starting businesses and getting into problems for them. In order to develop the technology for vaccines, biofuels, and medications, he co-founded Synthetic Genomics. The Times reports that the company sued him "over allegations that he pilfered its trade secrets, poached its staff and sought to lure away its investors" after he founded Human Longevity Inc. in 2013. In 2016, he was given a prostate cancer diagnosis.

Venter was valued at tens of millions of dollars at the time of his death last month at the age of 79. However, according to The Telegraph, he lost out on the "myriad applications" that synthetic biology currently promises. Maverick to the end, he was viewed as an "opportunistic maniac" by his critics and as a brave "genius" who "should have been given a Nobel Prize" by his supporters.