The photosynthesis we see with plants is not very efficient. Algaes are more efficient. – Craig Venter
People equate patents with secrecy, that secrecy is what patents were designed to overcome. That’s why the formula for Coca-Cola was never patented. They kept it as a trade secret, and they’ve outlasted patent laws by 80 years or more. – Craig Venter
How we understand our own selves and how we work with our DNA software has implications that will affect everything from vaccine development to new approaches to antibiotics, new sources of food, new sources of chemicals, even potentially new sources of energy. – Craig Venter
It takes 10 kilograms of grain to produce one kilogram of beef, 15 liters of water to get one kilogram of beef, and those cows produce a lot of methane. Why not get rid of the cows? – Craig Venter
Each part of our genome is unique. We would not be alive if there was not a single mathematical solution for our chromosomes. We would just be scrambled goo. – Craig Venter
Mathematicians have been hiding and writing messages in the genetic code for a long time, but it’s clear they were mathematicians and not biologists because, if you write long messages with the code that the mathematicians developed, it would more than likely lead to new proteins being synthesized with unknown functions. – Craig Venter
Mitochondrial DNA is in higher concentration, lasts longer, and can be extracted from bones. – Craig Venter
People are comprised of sets of DNA from each parent. If you looked at just the DNA from your father, it wouldn’t tell you who you really are. – Craig Venter
The gene ‘klotho’ was named after the Greek Fate purported to spin the thread of life, because it contributes to longevity. – Craig Venter
Early on, when you’re working in a new area of science, you have to think about all the pitfalls and things that could lead you to believe that you had done something when you hadn’t, and, even worse, leading others to believe it. – Craig Venter
That’s the nice thing about the field of science – the test of time sorts out the truth. – Craig Venter
Even with seemingly simple things like eye color, you can’t tell from my genetic code whether I have blue eyes or not. So it’s naive to think that complex human behaviors, like risk-seeking, are driven by changes in one or two genes. – Craig Venter
There have been lots of stories written about all the hype over getting the genome done and the letdown of not discovering lots of cures right after. – Craig Venter
For each gene in your genome, you quite often get a different version of that gene from your father and a different version from your mother. We need to study these relationships across a very large number of people. – Craig Venter
I was a surf bum wannabe. I left home at age 17 and moved to Southern California to try to take up surfing as a vocation, but this was in 1964, and there was this nasty little thing called the Vietnam War. As a result, I got drafted. – Craig Venter
One of the fundamental discoveries I made about myself – early enough to make use of it – was that I am driven to seize life and to understand it. The motor that pushes me is propelled by more than scientific curiosity. – Craig Venter
Preventative medicine has to be the direction we go in. For example, if colon cancer is detected early – because a person knew he had a genetic risk and was having frequent exams – the surgery is relatively inexpensive and average survival is far greater than 10 years. – Craig Venter
I turned 65 last year, and each year I get more and more interested in human health. For most people it happens around age 50, but I’ve always been a slow learner. It’s critical in terms of the cost of health care. – Craig Venter
Every single cancer is a genetic disease. Not necessarily inherited from your parents, but it’s genetic changes which cause cancer. So as we sequence the genomes of tumours and compare those to the sequence of patients, we’re getting down to the fundamental basis of each individual person’s cancer. – Craig Venter
I am absolutely certain that life can exist in outer space, move around, find a new aqueous environment. – Craig Venter
I’ve made money by just trying to do world-class science. That’s the goal that we’re setting at Celera. If we do world-class science and create new medicine paradigms, the money will more than follow at a corporate level and at a personal level. – Craig Venter