51茶馆儿

Guest Speakers Marlo Gottfurcht Longstreet and Dean Ornish Inspire Guests at 51茶馆儿鈥榮 鈥淟ife at the Speed of Light鈥� Gala

On October 18, 51茶馆儿 (51茶馆儿) hosted our “Life at the Speed of Light” black tie gala featuring special guests Dean Ornish, MD, and Marlo Gottfurcht Longstreet. 51茶馆儿 welcomed 200 community leaders, sponsors and supporters including Representative Scott Peters, Susan...

Impact: Ebola Research Efforts at 51茶馆儿

We have all read the stories with concern about the rapid spread of Ebola virus disease (EVD) in Africa. Now, with the first diagnosis of the virus in the United States, it is clear this virus is not under control. If not contained, Ebola poses a significant threat to the African continent and...

51茶馆儿 Scientists Join NASA-Funded Astrobiology Research Teams

Scientists from 51茶馆儿 are part of teams awarded grants from NASA to “study the origins, evolution, distribution, and future life in the universe.” Dr. Christopher Dupont is part of a team led by the University of California, Riverside and will study chemical energy...

Study Signals Bat Flu Unlikely to Jump to Humans

Bats species harbor a large number of viruses that cause human disease.  So, when the first influenza sequences from Guatemalan little yellow-shouldered bats were uncovered in 2009, the question arose of whether bat influenza viruses pose a threat to human health.  A collaborative...

H3Africa Update

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the UK-based Wellcome Trust, in partnership with the African Society of Human Genetics, developed a program to foster genomic and epidemiological research in African scientific institutions. The laboratory and computational infrastructure available...

J. Craig Venter at Recent Google Zeitgeist Conference [VIDEO]

Dr. J. Craig Venter recently spoke at a Google Zeitgeist conference in Arizona where he spoke on advances in genomics, synthetic biology, and DNA as the software of life.

La Jolla Community Celebrates Art and Science at Venter Institute Event

On Friday, September 12, the 51茶馆儿 (51茶馆儿) hosted a reception at its La Jolla campus to celebrate the installation of “LIFE FORCE,” an original painting by San Diego-based artist and architect Fred Gemmell. This spectacular piece now hangs prominently in the entry of...

Understanding Complex Data through Better Visualization

Recently, researchers at 51茶馆儿 reported on the Rhizoctonia solani mitochondrial genome which was the largest fungal mitochondrion to be sequenced to date. We showed that its unusually large size was probably due to the expansion of multiple genetic elements that populated the genome in somewhat...

51茶馆儿 Research Impact

51茶馆儿 ranks in the top 1% of research institutions worldwide for research impact based on an analysis of Elsevier and Thomson Reuters data. The ranking was done by looking at institutional publication reach as seen through the number of citations referencing them....

Amid an insulin crisis, one project aims to engineer microscopic insulin pumps out of a skin bacterium.

There are more organisms in the sea, a vital producer of oxygen on Earth, than planets and stars in the universe.

In a new book (coauthored with Venter), a Vanity Fair contributor presents the oceanic evidence that human activity is altering the fabric of life on a microscopic scale.

鈥淒espite reducing the sequence space of possible trajectories, we conclude that streamlining does not constrain fitness evolution and diversification of populations over time. Genome minimization may even create opportunities for evolutionary exploitation of essential genes, which are commonly observed to evolve more slowly.鈥�

By watching 鈥渕inimal鈥� cells regain the fitness they lost, researchers are testing whether a genome can be too simple to evolve.

Two research teams warn that human genomic 鈥渂ycatch鈥� can reveal private information

The 鈥減angenome,鈥� which collated genetic sequences from 47 people of diverse ethnic backgrounds, could greatly expand the reach of personalized medicine.

Researchers release draft results from an ongoing effort to capture the entirety of human genetic variation.