Craig Venter Reflections: Human Genome

Few bombshells have hit genomics like the day in May 1998 when Craig Venter and Applied Biosystems announced he would be launching Celera Genomics to sequence the human genome by a complete shotgun approach.  A couple of colleagues at Millennium had just announced they were leaving to form a contract research organization which would perform high throughput sequencing on demand - they were certainly rocked back on their heels (though not blown over; Orion Genomics remains successful to this day with a focus on palm oil genomes).  The public project was also rattled - Celera was promising to deliver a private genome much sooner.  In some ways, it was the EST brouhaha all over again - except with important twists.

Craig Venter Reflections: Small Genomes

In the early 1990s, Craig Venter left the NIH over disputes around the patenting of ESTs.  Investors backed him, but then William Haseltine basically pushed him out of direct operation of Human Genome Sciences (HGS) and Venter went to start The Institute for Genome Research, far better known as TIGR.  TIGR would attract an amazing array of talent both wet lab and dry lab - a pattern that Venter had established.  I believe it was around then that Venter attracted both Clyde Hutchinson and Hamilton Smith to TIGR - two giants of microbiology (Smith had a Nobel Prize!), and they would collaborate with him for the rest of their lives.  HGS would have human biology to themselves, but TIGR was free to explore other parts of life domain.  And it would be in the sequencing of microbes that Venter and TIGR would radically shake up a world that, as I reviewed in the previous piece, was debating how many levels of physical maps to build.

Craig Venter's Genomics Revolution: Setting the Stage

I am overdue in getting back to my very personal review of how the recently passed J. Craig Venter made a huge impact on genomics science.  But especially after being at London Calling, I worry that many in genomics today just won't have the context to grasp how unusual his approaches were.  I met some amazing graduate students there - and most likely they were born after the joint announcement by Venter and Francis Collins of the human genome initial completion.  So with the risk of writing a "back in my day we walked uphill to school both ways" piece, I wish to sketch a debate that the genomics world was having in the early days of the Human Genome Project.

FoG to Roll into Boston Seaport Wednesday & Thursday

The Festival of Genomics, Biodata and AI - thankfully known as FoG and not FogBA or FogBDA - will be at the Boston convention center this Wednesday and Thursday.  It's an interesting conference that typically has two editions each year, one in London and one here in Boston.  I'll be wandering around the floor part of both days - my beacon/hat to be announced on LinkedIn and Twitter that day (leaning hard towards my yellow University of Delaware hat).  FoG works hard to not be your average scientific conference, and I'd like to run down a few things I'm anticipating.   By the way, the world's largest autonomous lab is less than a mile from the conference site and tours are available during the conference - all you need to do is reach out to the tour coordinator to schedule one.  And I'm that, so DM me on LinkedIn and I can set you up.

London Calling: Long-Term R&D

Now to run through the long term technical projections from Oxford Nanopore's Tech Talk.  Well, projection is probably not the correct word - hints and teasers might be closer to the mark.  None of these pronouncements came with any hint of timing for when the community might be able to access them - indeed, CSO Lakmal Jayasinghe made it very clear that this section would have no timing information.  Here is a link to the presentation: what is covered in this piece starts around the 44:40 mark.

London Calling: ONT's Near Term Launches

I returned from London Calling 2026 much as I usually have - exhausted, more than a little hoarse, happy for discussions had and ruing connections missed.  The meeting felt much like prior ones, except in all the ways it was a little different.  The company continues its trajectory towards restraint and corporate maturity, with new CEO Francis Van Parys for the first time exhibiting his "evolution not revolution" messaging for the company's direction.  ONT's technical presentation was divided into two parts: near term that came with release dates = none of them even as distant as the end of the summer - and long term which had no hint of timing.  This piece will focus on the near term advancements and a separate one will cover the long term updates.  The entire presentation is already available on YouTube.

London Calling 2026 Preview

My series on Craig Venter is on a small pause since I didn't get it out before I arrived here in London for Oxford Nanopore's annual shindig at Old Billingsgate.  On the plus side (well, I hope my readers find it a plus), I've sketched out an additional piece - I realized that our world of fast whole genome sequencing powered by long read technologies such as Oxford Nanopore may make it challenging for many to remember the genomics world of the 1990s and how there were great differences in opinion on how to go about sequencing genomes.  But back to London Calling - this is an interesting moment in the history of the company and it shows in the program. So without more ado, here are some key topics and questions on my mind.