What Did Mapping The Genome Get Us?

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KQED

Politics, News, News Commentary

4.2 • 726 Ratings

🗓️ 6 May 2026

⏱️ 54 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Pioneering geneticist J. Craig Venter, who revolutionized biology with his role in sequencing the human genome, died last week in San Diego. In this hour, we look back at Venter’s scientific contributions and consider whether our expectations for the medical and scientific transformations from DNA mapping have been realized. How has our knowledge of the human genome changed our understanding of how life works on a molecular level, and how much could it continue to change with the new powers of AI? Guests: Dr. Fyodor Urnov, professor of Molecular Therapeutics, University of California, Berkeley; scientific director, Innovative Genomics Institute (IGI) Philip Ball, science writer, his most recent book is How Life Works: A User’s Guide to the New Biology Michael Marshall, science writer, his most recent book is The Genesis Quest: The Geniuses and Eccentrics on a Journey to Uncover the Origin of Life on Earth Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:41.3	From KQED.
0:43.7	Welcome to Forum. I'm Alexis Madrigal.
0:46.5	Few figures can claim his larger role in the push to understand genomes than Jay Craig Venter,
0:53.1	who died last week. He led a private effort through
0:55.6	the company Salera to race ahead of the Public Human Genome project to create the first
1:00.3	map of our genome. The efforts eventually uneasily merged and Venture went on to do much
1:05.3	other research over the last 25 years, pushing genomic sequencing technology with money and force of will.
1:11.6	We now live in a changed landscape when it comes to sequencing any DNA, and we in part have
1:16.6	Jake Craig Venture and his research organizations to thank.
1:20.6	Here to talk about his legacy, we're joined by Dr. Fyodoray Ernov, who's a professor in
	...

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