Institutionalized racism is the root of violence and the racial disparity that still exists in science + genomics research. We are committed to challenging, breaking down racial injustice in our field and in our community. We welcome your voices in this effort. Learn more.

Compelled by values of social justice and equity, UC Santa Cruz and Santa Cruz Community Health are working to test the area's underserved residents for COVID-19. The UC Santa Cruz Molecular Diagnostic Lab has run more than 200 tests since May 1. Read more.

The New York TImes’ Carl Zimmer recently tweeted that our SARS-CoV-2 Genome Browser is a "one-stop shopping experience for #covid19 molecular biology." We recently posted preprint publication about the Browser and wrote about a supporting toolkit designed to promote accurate scientific inference and discourse. We are now getting thousands of page requests per day to this platform, which is funded in part by Schmidt Futures, local philanthropists Pat & Rowland Rebele, and other incredible philanthropists who asked to remain anonymous.

Angela Brooks recently joined us as Diversity Director. If you don’t already have the pleasure of knowing Dr. Brooks, please read her profile. Dr. Brooks will head a new diversity committee.

Led by researchers at Harvard Medical School and UC Santa Cruz Genomics Institute affiliate Lars Fehren-Schmitz, an international research team published the first in-depth, wide-scale study of the genomic history of ancient civilizations in the central Andes mountains and coast before European contact. Read more.

UCSC researchers are driving advances in human genome assembly, making the process better, faster, cheaper & leveraging these innovations to create a reference genome more representative of human diversity. Our latest research demonstrates nanopore sequencing and a novel assembly tool can achieve the de novo assembly of 11 human genomes in nine days. Read more.

A sea otter genome browser featuring Monterey Bay Aquarium​'s beloved Gidget is now available on the UCSC Genome Browser. This is the result of a study by Annabel Beichman of UCLA​, fellow scientists & co-authors that noticed sea otters' low genetic diversity. Read more.

The CALeDNA program launched a collaboration with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory this spring to analyze the biodiversity of Northern California's Russian River using eDNA. Fresh analysis revealed links 97,798 among 2331 organisms, illuminating the interaction of invasive species and supporting investigation into monitoring strategies. The survey also detected the rare American beaver at three sites. Read more news at their website.

Thanks to support from CZI, UCSC Xena will be improving its user experience and engagement with a redesign of two core features using UX principles, standardization of training materials, and a blog highlighting research use cases. Xena paper, Visualizing and interpreting, public private data. Learn more about UCSC Xena in their latest paper published in Nature Biotechnology.

Baskin Engineering professor and Genomics Affiliate Ed Green was on ABC 20/20 explaining how a newDNA technique he developed at UC Santa Cruz identified the victims of the Bear Brooks Murders. Green's segment is around 1:06. Watch.

Genomics Institute affiliate and biomolecular engineer Nader Pourmand is evaluating the use of a novel nanosensor to provide rapid, low-cost, and accurate serology tests for coronavirus antibodies. Read more.

Congratulations to Carnegie Mellon Professor and Haussler lab alumnus Jian Ma for earning a 2020 Guggenheim Fellowship for his work in developing algorithms to compare genome structure and function in different biological contexts. Read more. 

The Genomics Institute & UCSC Braingeneers's Dr. Sofie Salama received a NIMH grant to study molecular and cellular defects that underlie neurodevelopmental diseases like autism and schizophrenia. Read more.

Alumna Erin Lamontagne was an undergraduate researcher in the Haussler-Salama Lab 2015-2016, then worked in Genomics Institute affiliate Daniel Kim's lab on pluripotent stem cell culture. She joined the UCSD Bioengineering graduate program last fall and was recently awarded a NSF graduate research fellowship. Read more.

Congratulations to 2020 Dean's Undergraduate Research Award winners Taylor Real (L, top) and Liam Tran (R, bottom), both mentored by Dr. Sofie Salama of the Institute for the Biology of Stem Cells at UC Santa Cruz and the UC Santa Cruz Genomics Institute Scientific Director Dr. David Haussler; and to Preet Kaur (R, top) and Serafina Nieves (L, bottom), both Genomics Institute Office of Diversity RMI Scholars and mentored by UC Santa Cruz Genomics Institute affiliated faculty member Russ Corbett-Detig. Read more.

Genomics Institute Office of Diversity RMI Scholar and Treehouse Childhood Cancer Initiative undergrad researcher Jackie Roger received a National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship Program Award! She's starting UCSF's Biological & Medical Informatics PhD program in the fall.

Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation recently awarded undergrad researcher Sneha Jariwala and Treehouse a Pediatric Oncology Student Training (POST) grant  to complete their project, "Comparative gene expression analysis of pediatric leukemias." More.

UC’s CITRIS responded to COVID-19 with 25 awards for innovation, including our COVID GenomeBrowser to accelerate research, bit.ly/GBcoronavirus, and the UCSC Molecular Diagnostic Lab launched expressly to increase COVID-19 testing capacity in Santa Cruz. Read more.

We are proud to share that our Scientific Director and Distinguished Professor David Haussler was ranked #5 in the world in research citations among researchers in the field of Computer Science and Electronics according to Guide2Research’s 2020 Ranking of Top 1000 Scientists. Read more.

Major Milestone: We’re celebrating 20 Years in 2020. On July 7, it will be 20 years since the publication of the human genome to the Internet: Take a moment to commemorate this effort, and consider how UC Santa Cruz led the effort to ensure that it would be free and available to everyone, everywhere, forever.

Karen Miga, Director of the Data Production Center at UCSC for the Human Pangenome Project, is keynote speaker at HiTSeq, the yearly gathering of the ISCB Community of Special Interest in High Throughput Sequencing algorithms. July 15-16, 2020. Register here.

The UCSC Genome Browser team normally conducts in-person training for clients all over the world. Here, they’ve created an extensive collection of video content on how to use the Browser -- a timely resource during this time when in-person training is on pause.

BD2K Summer UP returns, in its debut as a completely virtual program. BD2K Summer UP identifies and develops talented students from underrepresented groups who are interested in genomic science. Learn more about this annual NIH-funded program and meet the scholars.