science · 14 October 1946 · 78 years ago
birth
Born 14 Oct 1946.
American molecular geneticist who pioneered the use of automated gene sequencers. In 1990, he developed "expressed sequence tags" (ESTs), a new strategy for gene discovery and tagging that revolutionized the biological sciences. In 1995, Venter, in collaboration with Hamilton Smith, determined the DNA sequence of the entire genome (all the genetic material of an organism) of Hemophilus influenzae, a bacterium that causes earaches and meningitis in humans. The achievement marked the first time that the complete sequence of a free-living organism had been deciphered, and it was accomplished in less than a year. He founded the Institute for Genomic Research (TIGR). By 2000, his company Celera Genomics sequenced the human genome.
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