Who is Craig Venter ?

Venter developed a method of deciphering genomes known as whole-genome shotgun sequencing. The genome to be analyzed is broken into random, overlapping fragments of DNA that are a few thousand letters in length. Each fragment is sequenced, or read. Then the fragments are reassembled by a computer into their correct order. Although there were initially many skeptics, Venter’s conviction that shotgunning would be faster and just as accurate for much genome deciphering proved to be true, and the technique is now widely used.

In 1995 Venter and his team used the technique to obtain the first complete genome (DNA sequence) of an organism other than a virus, that of the bacterium Haemophilus influenzae. In 2000, in collaboration with researchers at the University of California at Berkeley, he published almost the entire genome of the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster. In 2001 his team and a competing group published rough drafts of the human genome.

He was the former president and founder of Celera Genomics, which became famous for running a parallel version of the Human Genome Project of its own for commercial purposes, using shotgun sequencing technology in 1999. The aim of the Celera project was to create a database of genomic data that users could subscribe to for a fee. This proved very unpopular in the genetics community and spurred several groups to redouble their efforts to produce the full sequence and release it as open access. DNA from 5 individuals was used by Celera to generate the sequence of the human genome; one of the 5 individuals used in this project was Venter. The Human Genome Project, which was composed of many groups from around the world, rendered the attempt to privatise the process unfeasible. Venter was fired by Celera in early 2002 after it became clear that selling genome data would not become profitable and Venter resisted efforts by the company board to change the strategic direction of the company.

Despite their differing motivations, Venter and rival scientist Francis Collins of the National Institute of Health jointly made the announcement of the mapping of the human genome in 2000, along with US President Bill Clinton.