Venter Institute www.jcvi.org
Craig Venter于1946年10月14日出生于美国盐湖城，是一位生物学家及企业家。时代杂志在2000年7月将Venter与人类基因组计划代表佛兰西斯•柯林
Craig Venter）
斯同时选为封面人物又在2007年将他选进世界上最有影响力的人之一。
1984年，Venter进入了美国国家卫生研究院（National Institutes of Health，缩写NIH）。 于NIH期间，Venter学到了快速辨识细胞中mRNA的技术，并将其应用在人类大脑基因的辨认。以这种方式发现的互补DNA（cDNA）序列片段称为表现序列标签（Expressed sequence tags，缩写ESTs）。在一场具争议性的官司中，Venter试图将这些辨识出来的基因申请成为专利，但最后败诉。
Craig Venter是塞雷拉基因组公司（Celera Genomics）的创办人与前任总裁，此公司在他的带领下展开与人类基因组计划互相竞争、且具有商业目的之研究计划，此后他逐渐成名。这场计划开始于1999年，特色之一是使用了「散弹定序法」（shotgun sequencing）。塞雷拉研究计划的目的是要建立一个需付费才能使用的基因组数据库。此目的在遗传学界并不受欢迎，并激起许多团队加速将成果公开。
塞雷拉公司用来研究基因组的DNA来自五个人，其中一位便是Venter本人。最后私有化的意图并未达成，而凡特与人类基因组计划的代表佛兰西斯•柯林斯（Francis Collins）共同出席了由美国总统比尔•柯林顿主持的基因组计划完成宣告。
2002年，塞雷拉公司董事会将凡特解雇。
Venter目前是克莱格•凡特研究所（J. Craig Venter Institute，由TIGR所建立）的主席，这家研究机构跨足许多不同领域。2005年，他与其它人合伙建立了合成基因组公司（Synthetic Genomics），专门以经过改造的微生物生产作为替代燃料的乙醇（酒精）与氢。凡特的研究小组有一艘由游艇改装成的研究船，称为「魔法师二号」（Sorcerer II），专门研究海洋微生物。
添加摘要
About the J. Craig Venter Institute
The J. Craig Venter Institute was formed in October 2006 through the merger of several affiliated and legacy organizations — The Institute for Genomic Research (TIGR) and The Center for the Advancement of Genomics (TCAG), The J. Craig Venter Science Foundation, The Joint Technology Center, and the Institute for Biological Energy Alternatives (IBEA). Today all these organizations have become one large multidisciplinary genomic-focused organization. With more than 400 scientists and staff, more than 250,000 square feet of laboratory space, and locations in Rockville, Maryland and San Diego, California, the new JCVI is a world leader in genomic research.
History
For more than two decades Dr. J. Craig Venter and his research teams have been pioneers in genomic research. The revolution began in 1991 when at the National Institutes of Health Dr. Venter and his team developed expressed sequence tags (ESTs), a new technique to rapidly discover genes. Dr. Venter and his colleagues then started a new kind of not for profit research institute, The Institute for Genomic Research (TIGR). With the freedom to pursue any number of exciting avenues in the burgeoning field of genomics, the team decided to use their new computing and computational tools, as well as new DNA sequencing technology, to sequence the first free living organism, Haemophilus influenzae in 1995. With this advance, the floodgates of genomics were opened. TIGR went on to sequence and analyze more than 50 microbial genomes. Dr. Venter and some from his team moved into mammalian genomics and sequenced some of the most important model organisms including the fruit fly, mouse and rat. The world’s attention was perhaps most keenly focused on the sequencing and analysis of one genome — the human — which was published in 2001 by Dr. Venter and his team at Celera Genomics.
At the JCVI, we’re not content to rest on our laurels. In the past three years teams have been engaged in some of the most fruitful and exciting research in the biological sciences. We’ve recently published the first diploid human genome and the initial results of our global ocean sampling expedition which uncovered more than six million new genes and thousands of new protein families from organisms found in sea water. Teams have also sequenced the microbial flora found in human environments such as the vagina, oral cavity and human gut. We’re making steady progress in our quest to create a synthetic chromosome and organism having successfully transformed one species of bacteria into another. We’ve also sequenced a variety of important infectious disease agents such as the mosquito species, Aedes aegypti, and we are working to understand the evolution of several viral genomes such as influenza and coronavirus in our quest to help alleviate the scourge of infectious disease around the world. These are just a few of the many research areas our team is tackling as we seek to make a worldwide impact with our science.