I take it most have heard of Watson and Crick, the guys credited for discovering the structure of DNa back in the 50s.
But, have any of you heard of Craig Venter?
Craig Venter, to me, is the one guys who has done the most to accelerate the world of genomics. True, there are others I can think of who have done a lot, such as the amazing Eric Lander. But, Craig is the one who needs to be recognized for his pioneering efforts, recognized with science's highest honor.
I first heard of Craig in the early 90s when the way to discover genes was to create libraries of DNA (cDNA) make from messenger RNA (mRNA), mRNA being the way genes are translated into proteins. Back then, labs were frantically making cDNA libraries so that folks could find and characterize genes. Craig cam in and said he'd make a library and patent and sell the rights. Folks freaked out, Merck stepped in by flooding the market with their huge free library, making it harder for Craig to do what he set out to do. In the end, the community was flooded with a huge amount of information, thanks to Craig.
The next time I remember is when he sequenced the first full organism using a shot-gun method of blasting the smithereens of the organism genome, sequencing the bits and letting a computer assemble it all. At the time, traditional sequencing (reading the genome) was done by reading a piece, creating primers to start the reading of the next adjacent sequence, and the walking down the chromosome. Slow and laborious. Craig change all that as he started sequencing larger and larger genomes.
What almost seemed like a lark to me, he up and went and sequenced the genome of the fruit fly, a key organism in genetics. The community was thrilled and it seemed all to easy.
Meanwhile, the main stream community was slogging along, sequencing the human genome in a 15 year plan. After the fruit fly, Craig realized he could sequence the human genome in a few years. If he did, he'd have it out before the poor suckers who had already been doing it for 10.
OMG, the furor.
To make a long story short, someone managed to broker a deal and the main stream community announced their draft sequence on the same day Craig did. Heh. Way to go Craig. You made them finish ahead of schedule.
But that was a 'minor' milestone for Craig. His latest genome escapades had him sailing the world, sucking up water, and shot-gin sequencing all the organisms in the water. He's changing the face of marine and genome science like no one before.
He's really the genome man and a few months ago did some experiments that are paving the way for synthetic organism, organisms that have specifically defined genomes. If anyone will succeed, it's Craig, who over the past 10 years sequenced all sort of organisms, and understands what makes up an organism, genome-wise, that is.
His latest thing is recently he published his own genome. Y'see, the previous genomes are basically an average of all the contributors. His is one of two known individual genomes out there (the other is James Watson, natch). That alone has already led to some interesting findings related to how similar two humans might be (estimated at 0.5% – a huge difference).
What can I say? This guy keeps transforming the face of genomics and needs to be recognized for the maverick he is. I wonder if he were part of a university, rather than his own (commercial) institution, if he would have already received the Nobel.
Indeed, he'll get one. I'm just tired of waiting. With the stuff he's done, he deserves at least two.
