DNA takes a look at the people who made the headlines in the year gone by.

J Craig Venter
The American biologist and entrepreneur is most famous for being one of the first to sequence the human genome and, this year, for his role in creating the first cell with a synthetic genome. Venter is often considered a rebel by his peers, but his unorthodox approach to genetics has yielded stunning results at a quick rate. He is currently mapping every living being in the world’s oceans.