Craig Venter was the first person to have his genome sequenced. Recently he and his colleagues at the J. Craig Venter Institute created a synthetic organism that could be a key to the foods and fuels of the future.  Dr. Venter speaks about synthetic life and about a project to map the diversity of the microbial world. His lecture was the inaugural Wall Exchange, a new public lecture series in Vancouver presented by the Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies in the University of British Columbia.

J. Craig Venter, Ph.D., is regarded as one of the leading scientists of the 21st century for his numerous invaluable contributions to genomic research.  In 1992 Dr. Venter founded The Institute for Genomic Research (TIGR), a not-for-profit research institute, where in 1995 he and his team decoded the genome of the first free-living organism, the bacterium Haemophilus influenzae, using his new whole genome shotgun technique. Dr. Venter and his teams have now sequenced hundreds of genomes using his techniques and tools.

He is Founder and President of the J. Craig Venter Institute (JCVI), a not-for-profit, research and support organization with more than 400 scientist and staff dedicated to human, microbial, plant and environmental genomic research, the exploration of social and ethical issues in genomics, and seeking alternative energy solutions through genomics.
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For photos and reports on synthetic life, including the ethical studies mentioned in the lecture, go to his website.

The Wall Exchange is a series of lectures presented by the Peter Wall Institute of the University of British Columbia.