Word: venter
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...Venter's Miami gene festival captured many sides of a complex personality that seems to thrive on rattling the world of molecular biology. In his most recent seismic event, the maverick-millionaire-scientist-cum-rock-fan announced last May that his privately funded lab will decode the entire human genome years faster and for hundreds of million of dollars less than the U.S. government's vaunted Human Genome Project...
...brazen challenge to the scientific establishment, but Venter has a genius for making the tools of molecular biology do big things. He has decoded more genes, and faster, than anyone else in the world. He pioneered the use of automated gene sequencers. He developed the most widely used method of tagging bits of genes. And he was first to sequence the genome of an entire living organism. Nearly half the genomes that have been decoded to date were decoded...
Nonetheless, scientists with the federal project were quick to criticize Venter's new plan. They said that his genome map will be full of holes and that his financial backers will lock it up with patents, blocking the advancement of science...
They may be right. But by throwing the genome program into a competitive race, Venter has forced government-funded gene researchers to rethink their plans. Says Rockefeller University biologist Norton Zinder, who headed the first National Institutes of Health advisory panel on the Human Genome Project and recently signed on to the Venter venture: "Now everybody has awakened...
Driven, impatient, demanding, irritating, Craig Venter has a knack for making the rest of the world run at Venter speed. "I've always felt in a hurry to get things accomplished," he cheerfully confesses. He is in constant motion--lecturing in Europe, raising money on Wall Street, opening satellite centers in California. The closest he comes to relaxing is sailing on his 82-ft. sloop, the Sorcerer. Even that's a challenge. "He seldom goes for a day sail," says his wife Claire Fraser, a noted molecular biologist. "When he goes sailing, he's got to cross oceans...