In San Diego Talk, Venter Says Biofuels ‘Dead’ Without Carbon Policy

J. Craig Venter, Synthetic Genomics, Stem Cell Meeting on the Mesa

superstorms like Hurricane Sandy continue to slam the nation.

So what does this mean for the work on algae-based biofuels at San Diego’s Synthetic Genomics, where Venter is the founding chairman and CEO? (Synthetic Genomics announced with considerable fanfare in 2009 that it had established a partnership with ExxonMobil, which planned to invest $600 million or more on the development of renewable, algae-based biofuels.)

“Oh, we’re still working on it,” Venter said.

Venter’s presentation was introduced by Larry Goldstein, director of the stem cell program at UC San Diego, who revealed that he has some of Venter’s brain cells growing in a dish in his laboratory. From a skin biopsy, Goldstein said researchers in his lab created a line of pluripotent neuronal stem cells. Venter later told the audience, “Larry told me my neurons are slowly taking over his labs, and I do feel my consciousness expanding.”

During his presentation Tuesday evening, the famed geneticist offered an overview of advances at the confluence of genomics, regenerative medicine, and synthetic biology. Venter drew audible gasps from some people in the audience as he highlighted some of the recent work underway at the nonprofit J. Craig Venter Institute and Synthetic Genomics, and the potential of new technologies. Venter has covered some of these topics elsewhere over the past month, most notably at The Atlantic Meets the Pacific forum in La Jolla and the Wired Health Conference in New York City. Those highlights include:

—One of the key conceptual advances in recent years, Venter said, is in thinking of DNA as the “software of life.” When scientists “read the genome” with today’s gene sequencing tools, he says the

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Author: Bruce V. Bigelow

In Memoriam: Our dear friend Bruce V. Bigelow passed away on June 29, 2018. He was the editor of Xconomy San Diego from 2008 to 2018. Read more about his life and work here. Bruce Bigelow joined Xconomy from the business desk of the San Diego Union-Tribune. He was a member of the team of reporters who were awarded the 2006 Pulitzer Prize in National Reporting for uncovering bribes paid to San Diego Republican Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham in exchange for special legislation earmarks. He also shared a 2006 award for enterprise reporting from the Society of Business Editors and Writers for “In Harm’s Way,” an article about the extraordinary casualty rate among employees working in Iraq for San Diego’s Titan Corp. He has written extensively about the 2002 corporate accounting scandal at software goliath Peregrine Systems. He also was a Gerald Loeb Award finalist and National Headline Award winner for “The Toymaker,” a 14-part chronicle of a San Diego start-up company. He takes special satisfaction, though, that the series was included in the library for nonfiction narrative journalism at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University. Bigelow graduated from U.C. Berkeley in 1977 with a degree in English Literature and from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in 1979. Before joining the Union-Tribune in 1990, he worked for the Associated Press in Los Angeles and The Kansas City Times.