Across his career, he helped pioneer rapid gene discovery methods, led efforts that produced the first draft sequences of the human genome, published the first high-quality diploid human genome, and later helped launch the field of synthetic biology by constructing the first self-replicating bacterial cell controlled by a chemically synthesized genome.

In December 2025, Venter joined Stowers Institute President and Chief Scientific Officer Alejandro Sánchez Alvarado, Ph.D., for the Institute’s BIG IDEAS event in Kansas City, where he reflected on his scientific journey, the human genome race, and his later work exploring microbial life across the world’s oceans. For Venter, discovery required both the courage to ask ambitious questions and the conviction to pursue them. “You have to believe in your ideas or other people won’t,” he said. “There is a lot of work to be done. But the technology is here.”

Speaking to the packed auditorium, Venter described a career shaped by bold questions, scientific risk, and a willingness to follow unexpected paths. His message was ultimately one of restless optimism. Reflecting on the future of biology, he told the audience, “The possibilities are limitless. It’s coming, and it’s going to happen ten times faster than we ever imagined… It’s so much closer.”

That sense of possibility carried through his stories of ocean exploration, where modern sequencing allowed his team to uncover forms of microbial life that earlier generations could not have imagined.

“We were seeing microbes that Darwin couldn’t have imagined were there,” he said. “Yet he had made it possible for us to know that we could seek and find them.”

The Stowers Institute sends its deepest condolences to Venter’s family, colleagues, and the scientific community at JCVI.

Read the full announcement from the J. Craig Venter Institute here.

Read the Stowers Institute BIG IDEAS recap here.