WASHINGTON — The Food and Drug Administration has named Katherine Szarama as the acting director of the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, which regulates vaccines, gene therapies, and the blood supply. 

A Health and Human Services official confirmed the move, which was first reported by Politico, to STAT. 

She is replacing Vinay Prasad, who left the agency on Thursday after a tumultuous tenure during which he issued a series of controversial decisions on rare disease drugs and vaccines. FDA Commissioner Marty Makary said in March that Prasad would return to the University of California San Francisco. 

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Now that Casey Means is no longer the Trump administration’s choice for Surgeon General, attention is turning to the third nominee for the position. 

Nicole Saphier, whose candidacy was announced Thursday, is a licensed physician — unlike Means, whose license lapsed. A radiologist at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Saphier (pronounced SAA-fire) is director of breast imaging at MSK Monmouth in New Jersey. She may be more widely known as a regular contributor to Fox Business, where she has said that the overwhelming majority of “good research” disputes the notion that vaccines are linked to autism, but has expressed an openness to alternative childhood vaccine schedules. 

Saphier has weighed in on many other concerns shared by the Make America Healthy Again movement promoted by health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., agreeing with Kennedy on some but also clearly questioning on others. In her own words, here are her views on vaccines, peptides, Tylenol in pregnancy, dietary guidelines, breast cancer, and also, Casey Means.

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J. Craig Venter, PhD, the founder, board chair, and CEO of the J. Craig Venter Institute (JCVI) has died in San Diego following a brief hospitalization for unexpected side effects that arose from the treatment of a recently diagnosed cancer, reported the JCVI in a press statement.

Venter helped define modern genomics and launch the field of synthetic biology. He was skillful in building interdisciplinary teams, pushing for new ideas and faster methods, and insisting that discovery should translate into real-world impact. He was also a major advocate for strong federal science funding and for partnerships that accelerate progress across government, academia, and industry.

“Craig believed that science moves forward when people are willing to think differently, move decisively, and build what doesn’t yet exist,” said Anders Dale, PhD, president of JCVI. “His leadership and vision reshaped genomics and helped ignite synthetic biology. We will honor his legacy by continuing the mission he built—advancing genomic science, championing the public investments that make discovery possible, and partnering broadly to turn knowledge into impact.”

“Venter has been recognized as an essential force in the impetus to evolve genomics from a slow, academic discipline into a fast-moving, data-driven, and commercially relevant enterprise, leaving a lasting imprint on biotechnology, medicine, and synthetic biology,” says John Sterling, GEN’s Editor in Chief, who has known and worked editorially with Venter over the past 35 years.

“Venter was controversial and often challenged the scientific orthodoxy, with critics accusing him of hype and going overboard on privatization. To many, he was a visionary focusing on technological acceleration and blending academic science with the zeal of an entrepreneur. Supporters saw him as a pioneer who sped up genomics by years.”

At the NIH, he played a key role in driving gene discovery using expressed sequence tags (ESTs), enabling rapid identification of large numbers of human genes and accelerating genome mapping efforts. He went on to lead efforts that, along with the NIH, produced the first draft sequences of the human genome, a milestone that helped usher biology into the digital age. He and colleagues later published the first high-quality diploid human genome, demonstrating the importance of capturing genetic variation inherited from both parents.

In synthetic biology, the Venter group constructed the first self-replicating bacterial cell controlled by a chemically synthesized genome—proof that genomes could be designed digitally, built from chemical components, and “booted up” to run a living cell. He also pursued scientific discovery at global scale.

Through the Sorcerer II Global Ocean Sampling Expedition, metagenomics was used to reveal amazing microbial diversity, reporting the discovery of millions of new genes and expanding the known universe of protein families—work that deepened understanding of the ocean microbiome and its impact on planetary systems.

Beyond his scientific achievements, and in addition to founding the JCVI, he also co-founded Synthetic Genomics, Human Longevity, and most recently Diploid Genomics, advancing efforts to translate genomics and synthetic biology into tools for the benefits of human health and environmental sustainability.

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