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Sequence identification of 2,375 human brain genes.
We recently described a new approach for the rapid characterization of expressed genes by partial DNA sequencing to generate 'expressed sequence tags'. From a set of 600 human brain complementary DNA clones, 348 were informative nuclear-encoded messenger RNAs. We have now partially sequenced 2,672 new, independent cDNA clones isolated from four human brain cDNA libraries to generate 2,375 expressed sequence tags to nuclear-encoded genes. These sequences, together with 348 brain expressed...
Sequencing and analysis of globally obtained human respiratory syncytial virus A and B genomes.
Human respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is the leading cause of respiratory tract infections in children globally, with nearly all children experiencing at least one infection by the age of two. Partial sequencing of the attachment glycoprotein gene is conducted routinely for genotyping, but relatively few whole genome sequences are available for RSV. The goal of our study was to sequence the genomes of RSV strains collected from multiple countries to further understand the global diversity...
Inflammation: Friend or Foe?
Thirteen years ago, a team led by J. Craig Venter Institute President, Karen Nelson, PhD, published the first major human microbiome study, radically changing the way we look at human health and the role the microbes that inhabit each of us play in disease. This seminal publication was a tipping point that lead to numerous new areas of research. JCVI Associate Professor, Marcelo Freire, DDS, PhD, DMSc, continues to lead the field as he investigates the critical role the human...
NASA and JCVI host symposium on the evolution of Earth and Life
On May 12th and 13th, the J. Craig Venter Institute in San Diego will be hosting a NASA Astrobiology Institute-funded symposium titled “Paleobiology in the genomics era.” Paleobiology is the study of the origins and evolution of life and, by nature, is interdisciplinary. The goal is to bring together scientists united by this common interest but differentiated by expertise. A major intellectual challenge to paleobiology is the close interaction between environment and life. As life...
About Nan Zhu
Nan Zhu, Ph.D. is an associate professor at J. Craig Venter Institute in the synthetic biology group. Prior to joining JCVI she was an Investigator at Versiti Blood Reach Institute in the Stem Cell and Hematopoiesis Program and held a joint appointment as an assistant professor at the Medical College of Wisconsin in the Department of Cell Biology, Neurobiology and Anatomy (CBNA).
Bacteria on the International Space Station no more dangerous than earthbound strains
Two particularly tenacious species of bacteria have colonized the potable water dispenser aboard the International Space Station (ISS), but a new study suggests that they are no more dangerous than closely related strains on Earth. Aubrie O'Rourke of the J. Craig Venter Institute and colleagues report these findings in a new paper published February 19, 2020 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE. Shortly after the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) installed...
Identifying Bacterial Antibiotic Resistance Markers in gut microbes
Ian Lamb, Manolito Torralba J. Craig Venter Institute, La Jolla, CA The gut microbiome plays a critical role in our health and well-being, but it also facilitates sharing of antibiotic resistance genes. However, antibiotic resistance genes can be identified by distinct markers which we screen in this study. Plasmids pTRACA18, pTRACA20, and pTRACA22 were chosen since they have demonstrated to be present in many gut microbes. This in turn allows the bacteria to spread...
The Search for Environmental “Gems” Continues
As an original crew member of the Sorcerer II circumnavigation that began in 2003, I had not been sailing/sampling on the boat since September 2007. I arrived in Florida with a mixture of emotions. Although life on board can be tedious, I was excited to return and embark on this next leg of discovery. Dr. Venter has created an incredible team that functions well at sea. Despite the close quarters and monotonous periods that can overshadow the journey, there is an easy and familiar feeling...
How Comparable are Microbial Electrochemical Systems around the Globe? An Electrochemical and Microbiological Cross-Laboratory Study.
Invited for this month's cover is the collaborative work among Univ. of Milano-Bicocca, Ricerca sul Sistema Energetico S.p.A., Univ. degli Studi di Milano, Univ. of California Irvine, Univ. of New Mexico, CNRS Toulouse. Technische Univ. Braunschweig, Aquacycl LLC, J. Craig Venter Institute, Helmholtz-Centre for Environmental Research. The image shows a sketch of a microbial fuel cell and a target indicating the need of developing common standards for the field of microbial electrochemical...
About Indresh Singh
Indresh K. Singh is director of informatics, leading Informatics Core Services (ICS) at the J. Craig Venter Institute (JCVI). He has been working on development and support of pipelines for processing and analyzing genome sequencing data for thousands of samples on JCVI High-throughput compute facility and AWS cloud.