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Gary W. Miller, Toxicology at the Speed of Light: An Interview with Dr Craig Venter, Toxicological Sciences, Volume 144, Issue 1, March 2015, Pages 5–6, https://doi.org/10.1093/toxsci/kfv010
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Later this month (March, 2015) the Society of Toxicology holds its 54th Annual Meeting in San Diego, California. The keynote speaker will be Dr J. Craig Venter. Dr Venter is best known for his role in the sequencing of the human genome. Often referred to as a maverick and even a narcissist, his ability to accomplish the seemingly impossible, or at least the improbable at unimaginable speeds, is uncanny. He tackles big problems with aplomb, many of which no others dare approach. It is clear that he is a visionary scientist who continues to make major advances.
One of Venter’s current ventures is synthetic biology. He wrote extensively on the subject in his 2013 book, Life at the Speed of Light, and this is the topic of his keynote address. One might wonder where the field of toxicology fits into this schema. Simply put, the idea of engineering organisms to address toxicological problems is no longer far-fetched. Native bacteria have already shown promise in cleaning up persistent pollutants, but when one can precisely manipulate the bacterial genome to engineer an organism to perform a very specific task the results could be extraordinary. His group is working on synthetic bacteria to clean up oil spills and sequester carbon dioxide from our atmosphere. I predict that some of Venter’s inventions will help reduce many of the toxicological burdens that our planet faces today.
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