Toxicology at the Speed of Light: An Interview with Dr Craig Venter

Later this month (March, 2015) the Society of Toxicology holds its 54th Annual Meeting in San Diego, California. The keynote speaker will be Dr J. Craig Venter. Dr Venter is best known for his role in the sequencing of the human genome. Often referred to as a maverick and even a narcissist, his ability to accomplish the seemingly impossible, or at least the improbable at unimaginable speeds, is uncanny. He tackles big problems with aplomb, many of which no others dare approach. It is clear that he is a visionary scientist who continues to make major advances. One of Venter’s current ventures is synthetic biology. He wrote extensively on the subject in his 2013 book, Life at the Speed of Light, and this is the topic of his keynote address. One might wonder where the field of toxicology fits into this schema. Simply put, the idea of engineering organisms to address toxicological problems is no longer far-fetched. Native bacteria have already shown promise in cleaning up persistent pollutants, but when one can precisely manipulate the bacterial genome to engineer an organism to perform a very specific task the results could be extraordinary. His group is working on synthetic bacteria to clean up oil spills and sequester carbon dioxide from our atmosphere. I predict that some of Venter’s inventions will help reduce many of the toxicological burdens that our planet faces today. What is amazing is that his highly criticized renegade approach to science has consistently delivered results in a rather spectacular fashion. What can we learn from his success? As scientists we like to teach very particular and specific methods, i.e., that there is one right way to do science. Venter’s achievements suggest that such rigid thinking and methodology may be slowing things down. Venter does not suggest that we dispatch with scientific rigor, quite the contrary. He is a staunch supporter of the mantra “extraordinary evidence for extraordinary claims.” He believes in careful controls and conducting thorough follow up experiments, but that doesn’t prevent him from thinking outside of the box . . . and by outside, I mean at a level that transcends the cliché. There is a chasm between truly cutting-edge science and its ultimate application to toxicological problems. The challenge for toxicology is to bridge that gap. In order for toxicology to utilize highly advanced methods we need to do a better job engaging with these fields at earlier stages. The field of toxicology likely does not need to invent entirely new technologies, but we do need to innovatively adopt and adapt emerging approaches to make them work to our ends. This is precisely what Dr Venter has done throughout his career and meeting attendees are encouraged to attend what promises to be an inspirational and inspiring talk. In anticipation of his keynote address, I posed a few questions to Dr Venter. The questions and his answers are below: