April 30, 2026

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Human genome decoder J. Craig Venter dies at 79

Scientist and medtech entrepreneur J. Craig Venter published the first bacterial genome ever decoded in 1995. The result heralded a new age of discovery for genetics

By Claire Cameron

Geneticist J. Craig Venter in a photo from 2015.

K.C. Alfred/ The San Diego Union-Tribune via Getty Image

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J. Craig Venter, the scientist who raced to decode the human genome, has died at 79.

Venter rose to fame in the field for publishing the first bacterial genome ever decoded, along with a list on gene annotations, in 1995. The achievement kicked off an age of discovery in genetics, with researchers racing to decode the genomes of other pathogens—and eventually, animals.

As the founder of Celera Genomics in 1998, Venter honed his method of decoding—whole genome shotgun sequencing—which can rapidly sequence different parts of the genome at the same time and then uses machine learning to reassemble them in the right order. The technique allowed him to enter the race to decode the human genome late.

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Celera went up against an international, U.S. government-backed research group known as The Human Genome Project in a competition that spurred each side on until Venter—having come under significant pressure from the the then-Clinton administration—agreed to a draw with the group. Notably, Venter used his own genome as his sample for the effort. The Project was declared complete in 2003 with 92 percent of the human genome decoded; the majority of the remaining genome was sequenced by 2021. Venter wrote about the effort in an article for Scientific American, which can be read here.

“Craig Venter was a force of nature and really an important though controversial figure," said Sir John Hardy, professor of neuroscience and group leader at the UK Dementia Research Institute, University College London, in a statement. "The race to complete the human sequence was a testosterone driven competition between the US and UK consortia with the big personalities of Francis Collins and Eric Lander on one side and Craig’s team on the other. there is no doubt that this competition speeded things up enormously and it ended really in a score draw with both sides publishing simultaneously in Science and Nature."

Venter also led an effort to explore the world’s oceans and trace the genetics of marine microbial communities. The first Global Ocean Sampling Expedition, which used Venter’s own yacht, circumnavigated the globe between 2005 and 2006. And he spearheaded an effort to make synthetic genomes, ultimately creating the first self-replicating, synthetic bacteria cell in 2010. In his latter career, he became more interested in longevity research, co-founding Human Longevity, Inc. in 2013, a venture dedicated to finding new ways to fight diseases linked to aging, such as Alzheimer's disease.

“J. Craig Venter was a swashbuckling, restless pioneer of genome sequencing and synthetic biology," said Roger Highfield, the science director at the Science Museum Group, a U.K. science museum consortium, in a statement. Highfield edited Venter's memoir, A Life Decoded. "Craig was a divisive figure but had huge chutzpah and was always driven on by the science. He was never going to win diplomat of the year, but he was always straightforward."

Venter began his academic career in 1969 at a California community college, College of San Mateo, before transferring to the University of California, San Diego. Then-President Barack Obama awarded Venter the National Medal of Science in 2008 for his genetic work. Afterward, he reflected in the piece for Scientific American that the achievement came "after years of never-ending work, criticism (from the outside world and even internally at my company), intervention by top science journal editors and even President [Bill] Clinton."

"To be standing where history was being made that day was a very emotional and fulfilling experience," he wrote.

The J. Craig Venter Institute, a nonprofit research group founded by Venter, said in a statement to media that he had been hospitalized after complications tied to cancer treatment. He died on Wednesday, April 29.

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