J Craig Venter Institute Inc

National science foundation continues to fund the j. Craig venter institute (jcvi) in the areas of synthetic biology, integrative organismal systems core programs. Funded by the office of international science and engineering, dr. Tae seok moon, jcvi professor leads an international consortium through a global center to address the challenges of recalcitrant waste streams by developing integrated, novel, and scalable processes for their valorization, integrating researchers all over the world and from academia and industry, and providing global education, outreach activities, and workforce. Global centers: circle: center for innovative recycling and circular economy is suported by research teams in the united states, canada, united kingdom, korea, japan, singapore & australia. This center will develop three core technologies, including (1) multi-omics-based bioprospecting to discover new enzymes, gene regulators, and organisms for waste valorization, (2) predictive computational approaches to enable forward engineering of proteins and strains for biomanufacturing, and (3) tea, lca, and risk assessment to develop commercially viable bioprocesses for waste valorization. To demonstrate the utility and generalizability of the developed core technologies, we will develop commercially viable valorization processes for three waste streams, including mixed plastics, c1 gases, and biogenic wastes (e.g., food, agricultural, and paper/cardboard wastes). If successful, these high-risk, high-return center projects will provide novel waste conversion processes that can be considered for commercial-scale, sustainable bioproduction. This is multi-year international study. The us consortium has been funded upto $4.9m. Non-us collaborators have been funded through research agencies within their own countries. Under the division of molecular and cellular bioscience and in collaboration with the university of illinois minimal bacterial cell computational modeleing team led by zaida luthey-schulten, jcvi researchers led by dr. John glass, are carrying out transcriptome and metablomic analyses, biochemical and genetic experiements to discover unknown gene functions, optimization of a minimal cell defined growth medium, and constrcution of minimal cell mutatns to facilitate the work of jcvi and other group[s investigating minimal cell biology. This is a multi-year study with collaborative funding of $2.0m (~$0.7m jcvi).led by dr. John glass, the jcvi is investigating the mechanism of genome transplantation, develop genome transplantation for at least two species of non-mycoplasma bacteria, and use microfluidics technology to automate and improve the efficiency of genome transplantation. Genome transplantation, the insertion of a complete bacterial genome into a suitable recipient cell so that the donated genome commandeers the recipient cell to produce a new cell with the genotype and phenotype of the donated genome, was the fundamental technical development that enabled the construction of the first bacterium with a synthetic genome. At the announcement of the creation of the world's first synthetic cell, jcvi-syn1.0, the work was heralded as a major accomplishment for humankind. To date, genome transplantation has only been achieved using a small subset if the atypical bacteria called mycoplasmas. This is a multi-year study with collaborative funding of $1.0m.

Jcvi scientists have partnered with other scientists from leading academic centers to come together to answer key questions about the root cause of long covid whether fragments of the coronavirus persist in the tissues of patients. The long covid research inititative bands together scientsits from harvard unibversity, stanford university, the university of california, san francisco, yale university and the j. Craig venter institute. The inititative is backed by an inititial investment from the balvi, a scientifc investment fund. Jcvi funding is awarded through the polybio research foundation. Researchers are using advanced imaging and gene-sequencing techniques looking for evidence of the virus in tissues and analyzing its affect on the immune system. Over the last few years, advances in stem cell research and synthetic biology have catalyzed an extraordinary expansion of organoid technology that is bringing changes to translational medicine, pharmaceutical research, and strategies for treating various human pathologies. Using stem cells, organoids have been developed for multiple organs including liver, intestine, kidney, brain, stomach, skin, ovary, and lung. Funded by the larry l hillblom foundation, dr. John glass is leading a consortium of researchers that propose to develop organoids that can serve as surrogates for beta cells, which are the cells in the human pancreas that control blood glucose levels by synthesizing insulin. Our goal is that these organoids, when implanted in type 1 diabetics, will result in a better treatment and better lives for those patients.

Other related programs for support of development of key staff & internships.