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New Outlet For Venter's Energy Genome by Justin Gillis
Washington Post Staff Writer, April 30, 2002; Page E01 J. Craig Venter, the maverick scientist who altered history when he chose to compile a human genetic map with private money, has settled on his next project: tackling the problem of global warming. Tapping a $100 million research endowment he is creating from his stock holdings, Venter plans to scour the world's deep ocean trenches for bacteria that might be able to convert carbon dioxide, the gas released when cars and power plants burn fuel, back into solid form without needing a lot of sunlight or other energy. The idea is to devise a technology that would allow humankind to continue producing energy while lowering emissions of the gas, which threatens to destabilize the Earth's climate. "We've barely scratched the surface of the microbial world out there to try to help the environment," Venter said in an interview. "We're going to be searching for some dramatic new microbes." Venter has a 20-year track record of upending scientific dogma and developing new approaches that other scientists eventually embrace. In 1998, he created Celera Genomics Corp., the Rockville company that raced government researchers to a draw in compiling the first draft maps of the precise order of chemicals -- or sequence -- of the human genome. The scientific jury is still out on whether Venter could have done it without borrowing data heavily from his public rivals, but there is no question the race accelerated the publicly funded Human Genome Project by years. Venter and his scientific rival, Francis S. Collins, eventually put aside their differences to announce simultaneous genetic maps in a White House ceremony in 2000. Venter recently confirmed that the genome Celera sequenced was in large measure his own. He said he felt that if he was going to ask people to surrender their genetic privacy for the sake of science, he ought to go first. As the excitement of the genome race faded and Celera -- and its Connecticut-based corporate parent -- turned their attention to the task of using the data to develop drugs, Venter grew increasingly restless, locked in combat with his boss, Tony L. White, over the unit's direction. Eventually, Venter was forced out as president. Venter would say little about his final months at Celera, declining even to reveal whether he had signed a confidentiality agreement in return for severance pay, as is common for executives at his level who leave. "I'm quite proud of my accomplishments there," Venter said. "But I did not want to run a pharmaceutical company." Because of his track record, Venter's plans to jump into environmental "bioremediation" could draw money, competition and public attention to that obscure field. In an interview last week, which he granted subject to a news blackout that lifted this morning, Venter showed off his new headquarters, the entire top floor of a large Rockville office building. The offices were empty but for a few tables and chairs and three assistants whom Venter has hired away from Celera. Venter, 55, sat behind a whistle-clean makeshift desk, looking relaxed in dark-gray pants and a light-gray shirt. Workmen hurried to and fro removing signs of the previous occupant, a bank. Venter emphasized that from now on, his ventures will be set up as not-for-profit corporations. "I'm not in business anymore," he said. The energy venture is merely the most ambitious of three new entities he plans to create. One, the J. Craig Venter Science Foundation, will hold much of the cash and stock Venter acquired in his jobs at Celera and an earlier association with Human Genome Sciences Inc., also of Rockville. Venter had previously said much of the money would go to scientific research, and the foundation is intended to formalize that arrangement. The money will support the work of his other two creations. One new entity will be a combination of think tank and specialized research shop that will focus on many of the social issues raised by the genetic science that Venter has helped to push forward. Venter envisions an organization with a small permanent staff and 20 to 30 visiting scholars at a given time. The scholars will be selected on the strength of their ideas and might use the time to produce books, papers or other projects on such issues as genetic discrimination and scientific racism. The think tank will be closely linked to the Institute for Genomic Research, a nonprofit laboratory Venter founded years ago that is now run by his wife, Claire Fraser, an accomplished genetic scientist. That lab, widely known as TIGR and based in Rockville, attracts extensive government funding and is the world's premier center for researching the genetics of bacteria. The new think tank will be called the TIGR Center for the Advancement of Genomics. Genomics is the study, at a broad scale, of the complete genetic inheritance of organisms -- their genomes. Venter is calling his third new entity the Institute for Biological Energy Alternatives. Venter expects to go after grant money from the U.S. Department of Energy and to have scores of scientists on board within a year. His goal will be to explore whether modern science can use the power of biology to solve the world's most serious environmental crisis. As industrial societies burn fossil fuels for energy, they are releasing vast amounts of carbon, previously locked in solid form, into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide. Rising concentrations of the gas are trapping extra heat from the sun -- the famous "greenhouse effect" --and warming the Earth. Estimates of the impact of this warming in the current century begin with severe economic disruption and the dislocation of millions of people and get worse from there. As political efforts to cut the use of energy have stalled, many scientists, Venter among them, have grown fascinated by the possibility of a technological fix. The Energy Department has for several years been funding research in the field, which is known as "carbon sequestration." Scientists are exploring a wide range of ideas, some quite modest and some as wild as fertilizing parts of the ocean to spark growth of algae that would take up carbon dioxide. The Bush administration has supported a broad portfolio of such research and has been increasing funds for it even in tight budget times. Among the most pragmatic ideas are those that would install colonies of organisms in "bioreactors" near power plants to suck up emissions of carbon dioxide and turn the gas into solids such as sugars, proteins and starches -- which might themselves be useful byproducts. Plant cells can already do this, of course, but they require vast amounts of energy in the form of sunlight, and many scientists believe they are likely to prove impractical on a large scale. Venter plans to base his approach on one of the most striking developments in biology in recent years -- the discovery, in deep ocean trenches and volcanic hot spots on the ocean floor, of a wide array of bacteria that can perform extensive chemical reactions without needing sunlight. These are thought to be descendants of the most primitive life forms that arose on the Earth, and scientists are just beginning to explore their potential. Venter said he hopes to find -- or, if necessary, create through genetic engineering -- an ideal organism or group of organisms that would be able to take in carbon dioxide, break it down, and produce both biological compounds and energy. Ari Patrinos, associate director of science for biological and environmental research at the Energy Department, said he had been discussing futuristic solutions to the energy problem with Venter for a decade and is excited to hear Venter is planning a big move into the field. He cautioned, however, that a great deal of fundamental research remains to be done. "I think it is indicative of the seriousness of these problems that they are attracting prominent scientists," Patrinos said. "People recognize that some of these problems are stubborn nuts to crack. We need to address them as aggressively as we can with the very best minds." Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A5058-2002Apr29.html
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