ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the efforts of J. Craig Venter to read deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), first at the national institutes of health (NIH), then at the institute for genomic research (TIGR). It provides an overview of Venter's two organizational structures after he left the NIH, his team's scientific successes, and the reasons his two post-NIH arrangements ended despite his research achievements culminating in sequencing the human genome. With Celera using the new computerized equipment to sequence the fruit fly's genetic code, Venter became ever more confident of the power of shotgun sequencing. In December 1993, SmithKline proposed to Venter and his TIGR team a strategy for sequencing the genome of a bacterium by shotgunning an organism's entire genome. June 1997 marked the corporate divorce of TIGR from Human Genome Sciences, Inc. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the practical applications of genome sequencing.
