J. Craig Venter Institute

05/08/2026

New study from JCVI's Tae Seok Moon: DNA carrying antibiotic-resistance genes can remain functional after common decontamination steps like bleach & autoclaving. Findings can help refine biosafety guidance and disposal practices.

https://www.jcvi.org/media-center/study-finds-dna-carrying-antibiotic-resistance-genes-can-remain-functional-after

05/08/2026

JCVI scientist Erin Garza is joining the Global All-Women Sailing Expedition to study how plastic pollution moves from land to sea in Tonga. During Leg 3, she will lead sampling in coastal waters, on shore, and from the air to support research on microplastics, pollution sources, and environmental impact.

https://www.jcvi.org/blog/tracking-plastic-pollution-source-sea-tongatapu-vavau

04/30/2026

It is with great sadness that we announce J. Craig Venter has died. His leadership and vision reshaped genomics and helped ignite synthetic biology. We will honor his legacy by continuing the mission he built—advancing genomic science, championing the public investments that make discovery possible, and partnering broadly to turn knowledge into impact.

La Jolla, California—April 29, 2026—The J. Craig Venter Institute (JCVI) announced that J. Craig Venter, Ph.D., the Institute’s founder, board...

04/28/2026

Registration is closing soon for our upcoming BV-BRC workshop at Argonne National Laboratory!

If you’re planning to join us, now is the time to complete your visitor registration to ensure access to the site. This is a required step for all attendees.

Register at: https://apps.anl.gov/registration/visitors

Use [email protected] as the sponsor email (your registration will be processed through Argonne)

04/28/2026

We're excited to announce that JCVI Assistant Professor Erin Garza, Ph.D. will be taking part of a ten leg expedition that will be the "first global study mapping ocean plastic pollution back to its sources on land." Dr. Garza will be on the third leg that plans to combine a mix of short sails and land-based science while island-hopping from the South to the North of Tonga. Follow the eXXpedition page for more detailed information.

04/01/2026

Bad breath isn't just awkward. It can be a biological signal.
New research from JCVI, in collaboration with the Bauru School of Dentistry at the University of São Paulo (FOB/USP), takes a closer look at halitosis (bad breath) and its real impact on patients’ lives. The research looks at clinical and psychosocial aspects of halitosis, and how volatile sulfur compounds—especially methyl mercaptan—correlate with quality of life. Understanding these mechanism can inform better diagnostics and treatments.

Using a cysteine challenge test, the team revealed that most participants harbored latent halitosis undetectable under standard conditions and even individuals without clinically confirmed bad breath reported significant emotional distress. Rather than treating bad breath as a cosmetic issue, the research frames it as a measurable condition with real psychosocial consequences.

The international team is led by JCVI's Marcelo Freire and FOB/USP's Paulo Sérgio da Silva Santos, with Mailon Cury Carneiro, a former visiting PhD student in Freire's lab and now a visiting scientist affiliated with the institute. Ongoing studies from this collaboration are now investigating the underlying microbial and immunological mechanisms, with promising results. Further publications are expected soon.

Read the publication: https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1752-7163/ae3f4a

03/24/2026

Last May we announced we were moving to new west coast headquarters at IQHQ’s state-of-the-art Research and Development District (RaDD) in downtown San Diego. Construction has been rapidly proceeding and we are counting down the months until we move into our fabulous new space this summer! This multi-use campus spans approximately 1.7 million square feet across six city blocks on San Diego’s downtown waterfront, integrating advanced laboratory and office space with modern infrastructure. The campus has also received a LEED Gold Certification, recognizing its energy efficiency, water conservation, indoor air quality, and lower carbon emissions.

Our move to the RaDD campus marks an exciting new chapter for JCVI. We’re looking forward to being part of downtown San Diegos’s growth, and we know our new home base will be an excellent environment for our researchers to continue to advance critical genomic science.

03/23/2026

JCVI Assistant Professor, Erin Garza, PhD is currently aboard R/V Sally Ride off the coast of California as part of a larger expedition to study the region's California Current, which is an important upwelling system and one of the most productive ocean areas in the world. Studying these systems helps us better understand how upwellings support marine food webs and contribute to nutrient cycling. These areas are also vulnerable to climate change and need to be regularly monitored.

Led by the Aluwihare lab of Scripps Institution of Oceanography and chief scientist, Dr. Benjamin Granzow, the ship will be collecting sinking, suspended, and dissolved organic matter for genomic, metabolomic, and proteomic analysis. Dr. Garza will be focused on the microbiome of these particles and testing their potential for plastic degradation. The microbiome of plastics mainly consists of microbes that like to grow attached to substrates, so she is hopeful to find plastic degraders among these samples. She will be taking air and water samples for microplastic count along the voyage.

03/18/2026

Early bird registration for the 2nd SynBYSS Conference in Barcelona on June 8–11, 2026 is ending soon! Register now to ensure a spot. SynBYSS coincides with a visit by Pope Leo XIV honoring the 100th anniversary of architect Antoni Gaudí's death, so hotels may fill quickly.

https://www.jcvi.org/synbyss

03/17/2026

Researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana‑Champaign have achieved the first full 4D simulation of a living cell’s complete life cycle—growth, metabolism, and division—using the JCVI minimal cell.

Our team contributed key experimental data, including engineered mutants, growth rates, and phenotypic measurements that helped ground the model in biological reality.

Together, this work highlights the minimal cell as a powerful model organism for uncovering the first principles of life—and as a flexible chassis for future biological design and experimentation.

https://www.jcvi.org/media-center/team-simulates-living-cell-grows-and-divides

02/17/2026

Dr. J. Craig Venter named to the Forbes 250: Greatest American Innovators for his pioneering effort to sequence the first draft of the human genome.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexknapp/2026/02/11/forbes-250-americas-greatest-innovators/