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The Independent UK
The Independent UK
National
Adithi Ramakrishnan

J. Craig Venter, who won the race to sequence the human genome, dies at 79

Obit Craig Venter - (Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

J. Craig Venter, who mapped the first draft of the human genome and helped scientists understand how genes shape our lives, died Wednesday. He was 79.

Venter’s death was announced by the J. Craig Venter Institute, a genomics research group with locations in La Jolla, California, and Rockville, Maryland. The institute said he died in San Diego after being hospitalized for side effects from a recent cancer treatment.

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