Informant38

Earlier this year, in what appears to have been the result of a clash of personalities, Dr Venter stepped down as president of Celera, as the company moved away from the uncertainties of selling genetics information towards the more profitable business of making drugs.

Last month, Dr Venter came up with a plan to put the entire genetic sequence of any individual on CD-ROM for around �450,000.

If nothing else, his make-life project demonstrates his talent for staying in the headlines.

His quick gene-finding technique was a widely admired breakthrough when it came, and the controversy over the human genome masks a large body of often non-commercial work deciphering other, less glamorous animal genomes.

If his work leads to the ability to design bespoke organisms, or the ability to sequence an entire human genome in 24 hours, he could still join the ranks of the mega-rich.