Venter steps down from Celera

Craig Venter has resigned as president of Celera Genomics, leaving Tony White, chief executive of Applera Corporation (Celera's parent company), to fill in until a replacement is found. Although Venter will remain as head of the company's scientific advisory board, analysts speculated that the swift departure without a replacement signified either a rift in the company or boredom on Venter's part.

However, in a statement from Celera, Venter said that as the company moves towards pharmaceutical discovery, his talents in genome sequencing were no longer needed at management level. Analyst Keith Redpath told BBC News Online 'it's all right when you're a research-based company, but when you get down to becoming more commercial, a different skill and mindset is often required'.