 J. Craig Venter, like our President, is living proof that you can goof off and surf your youth away and still make something of yourself and turn out okay. Venter was a lackadaisical youth, bringing home report cards with C's and D's as a middle school student, much preferring water and sand to studying. But he has more than made up for it in the years since, and will be recognized accordingly next month.
The National Medal of Science is the highest honor awarded to scientists by the United States government and is awarded annually to individuals who have made outstanding contributions to science and engineering after nominees are selected by a committee of Presidential appointees based on their contributions to scientific understanding.
The official citation states that Dr. Venter is being recognized for "his dedication to the advancement of the science of genomics, his contributions to the understanding of its implications for society, and his commitment to the clear communication of information to the scientific community, the public, and policymakers." Something of an understatement, actually, but quite a mouthful nonetheless.
Truth be told, I don't think anyone has done more to advance our understanding of science than Dr. Venter. He has been a continuous pioneer in the field of genomics. In the 80's, he and his team were the first to successfully employ new automated DNA sequencers to sequence human genes, then they advanced the same technology to develop Expressed Sequence Tags (ESTs). Because of that development, more than 65 million ESTs have been generated from a broad array of species.
His team was also the first to sequence the entire genome of an organism when they unlocked the genetic code for the bacteria Haemophilus Influenzae. This breakthrough led to an explosion of rapid - and more importantly accurate - decoding of literally hundreds of important genomes, including bacterial and viral pathogens. Because of this work, treatments have been developed that have changed and extended lives.
More than 95% of genomes that have been sequenced have used Dr Venter's methods, and it was only five short years after his team developed the sequencing method, they announced the first draft human genome, in 2000. They continued their work on sequencing and analyzing the human genome and published the first complete diploid genome in 2007.
This is truly a deserved - if not overdue - honor, and this humble little blog and this bench-tech-turned-blogger congratulate Dr. Venter and his team for finally being recognized for the groundbreaking work they have done and continue to do. |
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