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About Jeffrey M. Hoffman
Jeff Hoffman did his undergraduate and graduate work at Louisiana State University in microbiology. He started work in April 2002 and was the first person hired at the Venter Institute. Since 2002 Jeff has been the Expedition Scientist onboard Sorcerer II. His time on Sorcerer II includes the pilot study in the Sargasso Sea, the circumnavigation around the world from 2004-2006 and the Baltic/Mediterranean/ Black Sea of 2009-2010.
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...
Meeting of the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues
Date: Thursday, July 8, 2010 Friday, July 9, 2010 Time: 8:30 am — 5:15 pm (Thursday, July 8) 9 am — 12:15 pm (Friday, July 9) Location: The Ritz-Carlton Washington, DC 1150 22nd Street, NW Washington, DC 20037 202-835-0500 Topic: Synthetic Biology The Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues will hold its first meeting on July 8-9 in Washington, DC. The primary topic is synthetic biology. Speakers include Craig Venter, PhD,...
Aggressive assembly of pyrosequencing reads with mates.
DNA sequence reads from Sanger and pyrosequencing platforms differ in cost, accuracy, typical coverage, average read length and the variety of available paired-end protocols. Both read types can complement one another in a 'hybrid' approach to whole-genome shotgun sequencing projects, but assembly software must be modified to accommodate their different characteristics. This is true even of pyrosequencing mated and unmated read combinations. Without special modifications, assemblers tuned...
Stalking the fourth domain in metagenomic data: searching for, discovering, and interpreting novel, deep branches in marker gene phylogenetic trees.
Most of our knowledge about the ancient evolutionary history of organisms has been derived from data associated with specific known organisms (i.e., organisms that we can study directly such as plants, metazoans, and culturable microbes). Recently, however, a new source of data for such studies has arrived: DNA sequence data generated directly from environmental samples. Such metagenomic data has enormous potential in a variety of areas including, as we argue here, in studies of very early...
JCVI Promotes Science Literacy in the U.S.
The issue of our society’s science literacy continues to circulate through the media. Recently, reporters focused on results of the Pew Research Center’s Science Knowledge Quiz, which indicates that most Americans would score a grade of C on a basic science test. The gender and racial gaps revealed by the study were equally discouraging. Our planet is in crisis, and we need to mobilize all our intellectual forces to save it. One solution could lie in building a scientifically...
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...
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...
Signature Infiltration and Maintenance on Plasmid Elements creating a Forensic Microbial System (SIMPLE-FMS)
J. Craig Venter Institute (JCVI) is developing a unique microbial barcode (“signature”) that can be easily be deployed in complex environments to create unique microbial signatures for environmental forensics operations. The barcoded signature will be 1) maintained for specific amounts of time in a complex microbial community (microbiome) with minimal disturbance to the native environment; 2) transferable to a diverse array of objects; and 3) contained through control...
TIGR, NIAID Sign $65 Million Microbial Sequencing Contract
October 2, 2003 Rockville, MD - The world's leading center for microbial genomics, The Institute for Genomic Research (TIGR), has signed a five-year, $65 million contract with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, to sequence and analyze the genomes of pathogenic microbes and invertebrate vectors of infectious diseases for the wider scientific community. Under the contract, TIGR will sequence dozens of genomes...