J. Craig Venter obituary: maverick biotechnologist who sequenced the human genome

Credit: K.C. Alfred/U-T San Diego/ZUMA Wire/Alamy On 26 June 2000, J. Craig Venter accompanied then US president Bill Clinton and geneticist Francis Collins, leader of the Human Genome Project (HGP), into the East Room of the White House to celebrate the completion of the first draft of the human genome. The cordiality on show belied the fierce ‘genome wars’ that had been ongoing since Venter announced his ambition to launch a commercial competitor to the publicly funded, international HGP. …