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Around the world with Craig Venter

Fri, 2004-08-06 21:57 — Neil

I should read Wired Magazine more often. Current stories include 10th anniversary of the Beowulf but more interestingly, a 10-page article on Craig Venter's global circumnavigation and plans to "sequence the globe". Whatever you think of the guy, it's a fascinating read.


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Sun, 2004-08-08 23:56 — PedroBeltrao

A huge parts list

I specially like the idea of using the minimal genome (still a work in progress) to determine in high throughput fashion the function of the huge gene list that he will produce. Imagine the potential of such a parts list, combined with the ability to quickly assemble and test. It is a kind of "what do you want to build today".

I don't really know how he plans to get the function for the genes, since most proteins work within systems and not in isolation. Maybe something like rescue of function by adding, in the minimal genome, random combinations of the genes he finds.

Sometimes his actions seem like - do it first, think about it later - but anyway it looks fun :).


Sun, 2004-08-08 17:36 — Greg

Data availability

No matter how much you may loathe J. Craig Venter, you must admit that sailing around the world in your personal luxury research vessel is amazingly cool. Back in the real world, Mr. Venter is making all the data collected from the expedition available for download.