The creator of artificial life

In October 2007, American Professor John Craig Venter - once famous for his work on deciphering the human genome - caused a stir in the world of science when he proclaimed the creation of artificial life. This breakthrough, if in the right direction, can become the foundation for developing effective remedies for the incurable diseases for people, as well as producing new environmentally friendly energy sources to limit the heat up. Earth.

Considered a genius of biotechnology, Dr. Craig Venter has revolutionized gene technology. Nearly a decade ago, the time of the Human Genome Project (HGP), gathered many of the world's leading, government-funded research groups, still sluggish after many years of launch, Professor Venter was shocked to stand out as a 'boss' of a privately sponsored counterweight project. In September 1999, Celera Genomics founded by him started to decipher the human genome. Thanks to advanced technology, the work was completed after only 9 months - 3 years before the end of HGP, and with a budget of only 1/10 HGP (300 million compared to 3 billion USD). Stunned by the achievements that Venter's team had achieved and did not want to lose face, government scientists offered to " shake hands ". In June 2000, Professor Venter and HGP were present at the ceremony to announce the completion of a solemn genetic mapping project held in the White House under the presidency of President Bill Clinton and British Prime Minister. Tony Blair.

The work of decoding the human map is considered a historical event of mankind , which has the same meaning as taking people to the moon. That year, Dr. Venter was voted Time Person of the Year by Time magazine (USA). He is also known to be the first person to use a computer to decode gene maps, helping to shorten decoding time by up to 20 times. Dr. Venter said that with fast and low cost decoding techniques, in a few years, anyone could order decoding of their genetic map and get results after only a few weeks, opening the era of decoding. genes for each person. Professor Venter is one of two people in the world who possesses a personal genetic map (the other is James Watson, co-author of a DNA structure study).

Not only passionate about scientific research, Venter is also a 'believer' of yachting. For many years, he has combined with the study of genes of microorganisms living in the ocean. The 'Sorcerer 2' took him around the world to collect seawater samples. In early 2007, his group announced the discovery of more than 400 new species of microorganisms in the sea, thereby finding six million new genes - twice the number of genes that have been scientifically decoded. Last September, Professor Venter and his colleagues published the first full diploid DNA study of an individual writing 6 billion characters.

A month later, biologist Venter became the focus of international scientific papers when he announced the J. Craig Venter Institute created an artificial chromosome from laboratory chemicals, containing 318 genes and 580,000. pair of double bonds . It is implanted to control living bacterial cells, forming the world's first artificial living entity. Thus, this cell is not completely artificial but has a part of natural life, and is capable of cloning. However, the experts who evaluated this achievement are no different from the " double-edged sword ", on the one hand that can help people in developing new drugs to treat many serious diseases like diabetes, cancer, neurological diseases ., but on the other hand can also become ' the worst nightmare for mankind ' once used as bad as developing biological weapons. However, Dr. Venter's new achievement is still recognized as a major turning point in the history of scientific research.

In an interview with the press on the sidelines of the annual Web 2.0 Conference in San Francisco in mid-October 2007, Professor Venter said artificial biotechnology will dominate the world in the 21st century. It is a solution to environmental issues that the world is facing. In the near future, Professor Venter hopes to transform the genes of the artificial living entity above so that it can clean up greenhouse gas emissions, clean up the spill or use it to produce ' green ' fuels. , contributing to repel the global warming phenomenon.

With significant contributions to research projects aimed at protecting humanity and green planet, in 2007, 62-year-old scientist John Craig Venter was listed by Time magazine as one of the 100 most powerful figures. world.

Born in a middle-class family in Salt Lake City (USA), when Craig Venter was 21 years old, he enlisted and was sent to Vietnam as a military soldier.Six months of working in Da Nang helped Venter realize that saving people is a meaningful job.Returning to the US with his Vietnamese wife, he was determined to pursue the medical profession.In just five years, Venter graduated with a Bachelor of Biochemistry and earned his Ph.D. in Biology and Pharmacology at the University of California.

His career began to turn into a new direction after meeting the biochemist Nathan Kaplan, who discovered science at Venter and persuaded him to move into research.In 1984, he " headed the army " to the US National Institutes of Health.Here, he understood the importance of gene decoding, capturing gene identification and decoding techniques.

Dr. Venter is the founder of the Genetic Research Institute, J. Craig Venter Institute and J. Craig Venter Science Foundation.He also helped found the company Synthetics Genomes, which uses genetically modified microorganisms to produce biofuels.