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Pioneering genomics researcher J. Craig Venter—best known for leading the privately funded team that sequenced the first human genome—will give a keynote talk at the University of Colorado Boulder on Sept. 29 about the scientific potential of and future products derived from “synthetic life.”��

He also will describe his other ventures related to genomics, including his new company, which focuses on using genomics to extend the healthy human life span.

The talk, which will begin at 7 p.m. in Macky Auditorium, is free and open to the public and kicks off a conference being hosted by the University of Colorado Museum of Natural History called “The Meaning of Names: Naming Diversity in the 21st Century.”

In 2010, Venter and his research team announced that, for the first time, they had built an entirely man-made chain of DNA, inserted it into a cell and created a living bacterium. The accomplishment, a leap forward in the young field of synthetic biology, offers the possibility that humans could engineer life to act as biological factories with specific functions.

Venter and his team are working on a variety of applications of this work, including new food and nutritional products, new vaccines and anti-microbials, and even humanized pig organs to help those in need of transplants. He also is exploring the world’s oceans to uncover the vast diversity in the billions of microbes living there. Finally, he recently announced a new venture aimed at building the world’s largest human genomic database to better understand human biology. By sequencing millions of people the goal is to understand and therefore prevent many of the diseases that affect us as we age.��

Venter’s pursuit of genomic science to help solve a variety of societal needs and his exploration of biodiversity make him an excellent speaker to set the tone for the CU museum’s naming conference, said Robert Guralnick, the museum’s curator of invertebrate zoology. The ability to describe and understand the world’s biodiversity—to document new life, whether we find it or create it—depends on naming that life, he said.

“Dr. Venter’s work, including the creation of ‘synthetic life’ and the discovery of novel genetic material across the world’s oceans, is fascinating,” said museum Director Patrick Kociolek. “How those discoveries will be named, referred to, and discussed in the future relates directly to the conference.”

The original idea for the conference, which will run from Sept. 29 through Oct. 1, was inspired by the way names are used in biology to identify how a species fits into the larger animal and plant kingdom. But the conference, which has attracted internationally recognized speakers, is now set to examine the application and meaning of names across a broad range of disciplines, from biology to philosophy to computer science.

For more information on the conference, also free and open to the public, visit .

Contact:
Dulce Aldama, CU Museum of Natural History, 303-492-3396
Dulce.Aldama@colorado.edu
Jim Scott, CU-Boulder media relations, 303-492-3114
Jim.Scott@colorado.edu