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First Minimal Synthetic Bacterial Cell
Researchers from the J. Craig Venter Institute (JCVI) and Synthetic Genomics, Inc. (SGI) have accomplished the next feat in synthetic biology research—the design and construction of the first minimal synthetic bacterial cell, JCVI-syn3.0. Using the first synthetic cell, Mycoplasma mycoides JCVI-syn1.0 (built by this same team in 2010), JCVI-syn3.0 was developed through a design, build, and test (DBT) process using genes from JCVI-syn1.0. The new minimal synthetic cell contains only...
JCVI La Jolla: Sustainable Laboratory Facility
A Seamless Integration of Scientific Vision, Purpose and Technology JCVI’s commitment to environmental stewardship inspired the design and construction of our West Coast home: a unique, LEED Platinum biological laboratory building that generates almost all of the energy it consumes from the solar panels on its roof. Located on the campus of the UC San Diego, JCVI La Jolla contains some of the most innovative water and energy-efficient systems available, and, most importantly, is...
Coronavirus Research
Overview The J. Craig Venter Institute (JCVI) has been involved in viral sequencing and analysis for more than 25 years, and coronavirus research for more than 15. This work has aided human health through vaccine development; improved food security by protecting crops and livestock; and provides critical data and analysis to researchers around the world. The Institute has also pioneered a synthetic biology platform which is now integral to fighting current and emerging viral threats....
Everybody is Kung-Flu Fighting: Deep Sequencing of Clinical Influenza A Virus Reveals Patterns of Emerging/ Re-emerging Amino Acid Substitutions
Emma Roth, Brian Aevermann, Vinita Puri, Nadia Fedorova, Susmita Shrivastava, Lihui Wu, Paolo Amedeo, Rafael Medina, Gene Tan, Brett E. Pickett J. Craig Venter Institute, La Jolla, CA Infection by influenza A virus (IAV) can occur in birds or swine, and results in approximately 700,000 hospitalizations and 56,000 human deaths each year. Although vaccines exist and are reformulated each year, the rapid mutation rates (antigenic drift) and reassortment (antigenic shift)...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...