J. Craig Venter, Scientist Who Decoded the Human Genome, Dies at 79

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J. Craig Venter, Scientist Who Decoded the Human Genome, Dies at 79

A risk-taking outsider, he brought speed, competition and controversy to one of science’s biggest races.

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J. Craig Venter, next to Algae growth in his greenhouse in La Jolla, Calif., competed with a rival team of scientists in assembling the first human genome.

Credit...

Sandy Huffaker for The New York Times

By

Nicholas Wade

April 30, 2026,

12:29 a.m. ET

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J. Craig Venter, a scientist and entrepreneur who raced to decode the human genome, died on Wednesday in San Diego. He was 79.

His death was announced by the J. Craig Venter Institute, a nonprofit research organization founded by Dr. Venter and based in San Diego and Rockville, Md. The institute said in a statement that Dr. Venter had been hospitalized recently for side effects from cancer treatment.

In the 1990s, Dr. Venter, a risk-taker and intense competitor, made a bold move when he decided that the

Human Genome Project,

a $3 billion government program for decoding the human genome, was moving slowly enough that he could enter the race late and beat it with a much faster method.

His gamble paid off. In 2000, his company, Celera, made a joint announcement with a rival group saying that they

had assembled the first human genomes,

a landmark step toward uncovering the genetic basis of human disease and origins.

Dr. Venter had a powerful ego. That was clear when he let slip that the anonymous donor whose genome Celera had sequenced was none other than his own.

But his drive and management skills helped him inspire loyalty and assemble teams of exceptional scientists, including the Nobel Prize-winning microbiologist Hamilton O. Smith. Together, they achieved one landmark after another in the nascent field of genomics.

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