Genome pioneer Craig Venter dies: here’s how he transformed science

The ‘maverick’ scientist Craig Venter — who led a race to decode the human genome, pioneered a genome-sequencing method still used today, created the first organisms with synthetic genomes and sailed around the world recording microbial diversity — died on 29 April, aged 79. Venter is most well-known for leading a commercial effort to generate the first human genome sequence in the 1990s, racing against the US$3 billion global, publicly funded Human Genome Project (HGP). …