J. Craig Venter, the scientist who played a major role in the sequencing of the human genome, has passed away at the age of 79, and the science community is remembering him and his legacy.
J. Craig Venter played a critical role in the sequencing of the human genome. According to his namesake research institute, Venter has unfortunately passed away at the age of 79. The science community has been remembering Venter and his legacy with advancing science and our knowledge of the human genome.
Celera Genomics, Venter’s company, very notably began a scientific race when it came to trying to completely sequence the human genetic code before the government-funded Human Genome Project.
Venter pioneered new, cheaper, and faster approaches like the “whole genome shotgun method” which critics and skeptics believed would never work.
In 2003, Venter was interviewed by NPR where he was famously asked about how he felt being referred to as a “maverick” in the realm of science and discovery.
Venter stated that it “depends on how it’s meant by most people, but in the context of stodgy science, I consider it a tremendous badge of honor.”
Drew Endy, a synthetic biologist at Stanford University, spoke with the same publication regarding Venter’s legacy and the major mark he left in science.
“Craig was not only an extraordinarily innovative scientist. He also willed important ideas forward into reality and practice.”
Venter’s success is being heavily reflected on and praised following his passing. Many remember the moment in 2000 when scientists gathered at the White House with President Bill Clinton to celebrate the completion of efforts to sequence all human genes.
Looking back, Venter would credit his interest in science and biology to his work as a young adult serving in the US Naval Medical Corps in Vietnam. During his time in the service, he stated that he truly learned just how “tenuous life could be.”
Venter became the first person to sequence and publish his own individual genome, and his research team advanced the field of synthetic biology through creating a bacterial cell controlled by lab synthesized DNA.
Kate Adamala, a synthetic biologist at the University of Minnesota, said when reflecting on Venter’s legacy that “the idea that you can engineer a living synthetic cell from scratch was just an idea until Craig came out and said ‘I will actually do it,’ and he actually did it.”
Adamala continued that the “technique that labs use to build DNA these days was actually invented during the work by Venter’s team on building a set of minimal genes needed for life.”
“Venter will be remembered as someone who takes up a problem – a big, seemingly impossible research program – and then just ignores everybody who says it’s impossible and just goes and does it.”
Mary-Claire King, a geneticist with the University of Washington in Seattle, stated that during the race to sequence the human genome, Venter “played a key role as a challenger to the Human Genome Project.”
“Venter was a brilliant guy with a very strong sense of himself, enormous self-confidence.”
“That was enormously important and Craig’s being so over the top really basically provided the publicity that enabled the guys in the public sector project to make that point forcefully over and over again in a way that would be listened to,” says King.
The J. Craig Venter Institute announced the scientist’s death and said that Venter had been hospitalized following unexpected side effects that arose during treatment for a recently diagnosed cancer.
To leave off, when remembering the White House event in 2000, Venter said that although some had argued with him over sequencing the human genome and how it would actually diminish humanity by taking the mystery out of life, he knew his work was important.
“Nothing could be further from the truth,” Venter said.
“The complexities and wonder of how the inanimate chemicals that are our genetic code give rise to the imponderables of the human spirit should keep poets and philosophers inspired for the millennium.”
Eric Mastrota is a Contributing Editor at The National Digest based in New York. A graduate of SUNY New Paltz, he reports on world news, culture, and lifestyle. You can reach him at eric.mastrota@thenationaldigest.com.
