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About Rudy L. Ruggles, Jr.
Education Harvard College, Bachelor’s Degree in Physics, plus graduate studies Harvard Business School MBA – R&D Strategy, and International Economics 1960s Senior Associate Physicist, IBM Research Lab., Condensed Matter Physics
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Scientists announce comprehensive regional diagnostic of microbial ocean life using DNA testing
Scientists at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego, the J. Craig Venter Institute (JCVI), and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) used tools of genetics research akin to those used in genealogical research to evaluate the diversity of marine life off the California coast. Ceratium sp. dinoflagellates, imaged from seawater collected in waters offshore San Diego, that typify the California Current Ecosystems phytoplankton assemblage. Image courtesy...
Viral Synthetic Genomics to Engineer Large dsDNA Viruses
Viruses with large double-stranded DNA (dsDNA) genomes are a diverse group, which includes members that can infect a wide range of different hosts. Some of these viruses are important pathogens of humans and animals. Improving our ability to manipulate their genomes rapidly and accurately will increase our understanding of how these viruses replicate and cause disease and the likelihood of developing vaccines. Utilizing synthetic genomics tools developed by scientists at the J. Craig...
Sequencing and analysis of genomic fragments from the NF1 locus.
The sequence of five non-contiguous genomic fragments encompassing 14.4 kilobases from the NF1 locus have been determined by fluorescence-based automated DNA sequence analysis. These fragments included one kilobase of the NF1 coding region, which resulted in the identification of the intron/exon boundaries of five exons. Based on these sequences, five new NF1 exon-PCR assays have been developed, that could be useful for detecting new NF1 mutations. The genomic sequences were analyzed for...
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...
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...
AGBT, Marco Island 2010
I just got back from AGBT in Marco Island, Florida and I am still in awe. As noted in the name, this conference highlights advances in both genome biology and technology. The biology seemed to be very human genome centric. Many of the talks presented full genome sequences of cancer genomes or familial cohorts. Some of the numbers that people threw around were shocking. It was only a short time ago that Craig Venter came out with the first personal genome, and now sequencing centers like...