John Craig Venter is internationally known as a senior leader in genomics and other evolving disciplines of biotechnology.

His role in goading the sequencing of the first human genome made headlines. In more recent years, Venter and his team have moved to apply DNA sequencing technology to many aspects of health.

And more than reading DNA, Venter is a leader in writing DNA to custom-make living organisms that would serve specific human needs. He led a group in creating the world’s first synthetic DNA that functions in a replicating organism.

× Maverick La Jolla geneticist J. Craig Venter is opening the largest genetic sequencing center in the world in hopes of enabling countless people to live longer, healthier lives. Venter says he’ll soon begin sequencing up to 40,000 genomes a year, an


He also co-founded Human Longevity, a company that aims to harness the latest knowledge from genomics and other disciplines of science to extend the healthy human lifespan, or “healthspan.”

Venter is a big fan of San Diego, where he trained as a Navy corpsman and attended UC San Diego. He lives with his wife, Heather Kowalski, in La Jolla.

Other San Diegans who have changed the world

Also in La Jolla is the West Coast office of the research-focused J. Craig Venter Institute, along with the biotech companies that Venter had a hand in establishing — including Human Longevity, Synthetic Genomics and its subsidiary, SGI-DNA.

Venter, 69, recently took a pause from his bee-like schedule of activities to talk about his background, science and life in general.


J. Craig Venter with his dog, Darwin, and part of his collection of vehicles. / photo by John Gastaldo * U-T

Question: How would you describe yourself to people who don’t know you?

Answer: I am first and foremost a fundamental scientist, studying the genetic software of life.

To somebody from a different planet, I’d have to explain that life forms on Earth are driven by DNA software, and it’s a very complex code. And we’re at the earliest stages of learning how to read that code and even write it with synthetic biology.


Question: What motivated you to go into science?

Answer: It was when I got drafted in 1965, and I ended up choosing to be a Navy corpsman. Up until then, I was a swimming champion in high school and I briefly had an American record. I was good at surfing and water sports, but had not had any true academic or intellectual success.

My first station was at [the San Diego Naval Medical Center] in 1966. I was 18 years old, with nothing but the brief medical training you get, but I learned I was a sponge for learning at a practical level.

I’m skillful with manual dexterity things, so I not only rapidly learned how to do things faster than anybody else, but as an 18-year-old and 19-year-old, I was teaching interns and residents how to do things like spinal taps and even liver biopsies.


I rapidly became head of the infectious disease ward. It was the first introduction to the diseases that I did the genomes for decades later — malaria, meningitis, tuberculosis, etc. When you’re an 18- or 19-year-old and learn that people die from meningitis, those things stick with you.

Contrary to my school years, I found that I really loved learning and loved putting that to practical use where I could help people. Then it was further exacerbated when I ended up being sent to Vietnam for a year.

I found that I just really loved the practice of medicine and the application of knowledge to helping people. That’s what really turned my life around.

Question: What do you most love about science?


Answer: I recently described it as the best job you can get on the planet if you’re intellectually curious. I get to ask fundamental questions about life and I get to pursue my life trying to answer those questions.

I can’t imagine another profession that allows you that intellectual reward from answering these fundamental questions. But the ones that make me most excited is when we make a breakthrough we know will change people’s views of the fundamentals of life, and perhaps their lives in a direct fashion.

Every state of my career has been exciting, making breakthroughs and moving to the next stage, but I have to say this is the most exciting phase. All the things in my career are all coming together where we’re making fundamental discoveries about the software of life. Through the Health Nucleus [a preventive-health program offered by Human Longevity], every day we’re discovering things that literally can save people’s lives.

As a scientist, to have your ideas make that happen, it’s pretty awesome and rewarding.


Question: What is your favorite research done by another scientist?

Answer: The things I’ve appreciated from some of the really brilliant people in science are the huge leaps in understanding that they’ve made from a relatively small amount of data. I could have played with Tinker Toys all my life and I wouldn’t have come up with the double helix model for DNA.

The fundamental research done in the ’40s proving that DNA was the genetic material, I think is one of the most important discoveries in history. It led [James] Watson and [Francis] Crick to do what they did.

There’s plenty of people more brilliant and insightful than I’ve been. I can only admire the leaps they made from the data they had at the time.


The polio vaccine (development led by Dr. Jonas Salk) — I had friends in school who had polio. I remember distinctly getting the first vaccine. Wiping out a disease like polio, how could I not truly admire the outcome?

Question: Tell me about your dog, Darwin.

Answer: We got him when he was maybe three months. We bonded immediately. I sequenced the first dog genome, and that was one of Darwin’s oldest genetic relatives, a standard poodle.

The intellectual capacity and observational learning that Darwin has and other poodles have is truly stunning. He’s a great companion for both of us. He’s traveled around the world with us. We sailed across Italy and Greece and up into Turkey. He’s seen an awful lot in his six years.


Question: What about your hobbies — the sailing, cars, motorcycles?

Answer: I’ve loved water sports from the beginning, and sailing in particular. It’s a moving target, what I have time to do. When I get a chance, I spend time on the water. I surf, not very frequently now, but I do stand-up paddle-boarding. But (Human Longevity) has been so consuming of my time.

Growing up in the ’60s in the car era, there were large numbers of cars that I truly admired and loved. I have a collection of just a few cars and antique motorcycles. They give me pleasure because they cover the same period of history that all this [pioneering genetic work occurred in] — the late ’30s, ’40s, ’50s, ’60s.

Some of the motorcycles and cars that I have go back to the turn of the century. I have a 1905 Reo, for example. These are sort of surviving history of both my generation and my parents’ and even grandparents’ generations. Sometimes it’s fun to contemplate the histories these have gone through, with different families and places.


For example, I had a researcher find out my 1939 Bugatti was owned by a baron in France. The big question with all these is what happened during World War II? Were they taken over by the Nazis or not? It turns out the one I had was somehow hidden away and not confiscated by the Nazis.

They’re beautiful pieces of machinery that represent the history of our modern era.

Question: Do you think you’ve changed the world?

Answer: I don’t know how you define “the world.” I’ve changed some worlds. My work has certainly helped define us as a species and to some extent how life works, so I think my work and my team’s work has impacted that. We’re hoping to still change it. I haven’t given up on that goal yet. We’re working on it.


Question: Any final thoughts?

Answer: I came [to UC San Diego] in 1971 as an undergraduate and left in ’75 with my Ph.D. The Salk Institute [for Biological Studies] was somewhat recently completed when I first arrived here. I was inspired architecturally and historically.

The impact that Salk had obviously influenced me ... I certainly wanted the architecture [of the J. Craig Venter Institute] to be uniquely spectacular in its own way, to make a statement about science and science fitting in with the environment.

Everything from my military training here to my early science training, to be able to come back here and put it all together has certainly been a fantastic opportunity.


The reception in this community to the different things we’re doing has made it a true pleasure to be here.