UC Santa Cruz Genomics Institute

Congratulations to Benedict Paten on becoming a finalist at the Falling Walls Science Summit 2024 in the Life Sciences category for Breaking the Wall of Pangenomics 🎉🎉🎉

Please give a warm welcome to John Carlos Garza! We are very excited to have John as one of our newest affiliate faculty members! John leads the Molecular Ecology and Genetic Analysis Team to develop and use molecular genetic data and analytical methods to address questions related to ecology, evolution, and conservation!

Have you met Shaheen Sikandar? She is one of our newest affiliate faculty members! The Sikandar lab is interested in tackling questions pertaining to the functional consequences of heterogeneity in stem cells in normal and cancer tissues.

Hear David Haussler's perspective on life's code and more in "Scientific Principles of Life" this fall, which satisfies UC Santa Cruz Scientific Inquiry 5-course credit requirement. This class is for undergraduates! Enroll at my.ucsc.edu using class #11286.

How well do sequencing platforms and computational tools define the location of genes and their protein variants? UC Santa Cruz Professor Angela Brooks's new published paper evaluates which methods and technologies perform best in long-read RNA sequencing experiments. Read more about it here: https://news.ucsc.edu/2024/06/brooks-naturemethods24.html

Please give a big welcome to one of our newest affiliate faculty members Seth Rubin! His research group is studying the molecular mechanisms of cell-cycle control and their relationship to cancer by determining the structure and biochemical function of regulatory protein 🧬

Ever wondered what it takes to create 21st-century Mammoths, Dodos, and Thylacines? A conversation with paleogeneticist Beth Shapiro, the new chief science officer at Colossal Biosciences, speaks on the technological considerations needed to see these proxies of extinct species walk the Earth. Read more about it here: https://ow.ly/T2xY50RYMUm

Malin Pinsky leads the Global Change Research Group to understand how life adapts to climate change and variability, from genes to communities. He is also one of our new Genomics Institute affiliate faculty members 🎉 Welcome Malin!

New study discovers tiny target on RNA to short-circuit inflammation! Research led by immunologist Susan Carpenter has identified LOUP as an essential multifunctional gene in immune cells called monocytes. LOUP works inside the nucleus to control its neighbor SPI1. Read more about her research here: https://news.ucsc.edu/2024/05/lncrna-inflammation.html

We are proud to announce the release of vg 1.57.0, code name "Franchini". This release includes support for subpaths in the "vg annotate" tool, allowing you to import annotations when only part of the annotated reference is in your graph. Download the new vg today! https://github.com/vgteam/vg/releases/tag/v1.57.0

UC Santa Cruz biologist Malin Pinsky has been tapped to contribute to the National Nature Assessment! America's the first-ever report on nature’s inherent worth, and its contributions to the economy, our health, and well-being. Read more about it here: https://news.ucsc.edu/2024/05/pinsky-nature-report.html

SAVE THE DATE 📅 Daniel Kim will showcase his groundbreaking work on the potential of RNA liquid biopsies for cancer detection at London Calling 2024 Oxford Nanopore Technologies. Learn about his latest RNA liquid biopsy research for cancer early detection supported by the American Cancer Society! Please join us virtually (free) at on May 22-24! https://ow.ly/pKEw50RK8ZJ

Please give a big welcome to one of our newest affiliate faculty members Aide Macias-Muñoz! The Macias-Muñoz lab uses genomics and transcriptomics in invertebrates to determine the similarities and differences in genes, encoding similar traits across taxa.

Spliceosomes work hard to remove sequences called “introns" from genes before cells can make the proteins they need, but they don't stop there!

After the spliceosome is finished splicing the mRNA, it remains active and can engage in further reactions with the removed introns. A new study by Manuel Ares reports on a surprising discovery about the spliceosome that could tell us more about the evolution of different species and the way cells have adapted to the strange problem of introns!
Read more here: https://news.ucsc.edu/2024/05/recycling-dna-spliceosomes.html

Drugging the Undruggable with ring-shaped peptides! A new Goldilocks drug class called macrocyclic peptides is "just right" for previously undruggable targets. UC Santa Cruz Professor Scott Lokey is leading the way in showing the incredible potential of macrocyclic peptides. Read more about it here:

A new Goldilocks drug class: macrocyclic peptides By making peptides ring-shaped, researchers uncovered a new class of drugs that are “just right” for previously undruggable targets.

Have you met Scott Lokey? He is one of our newest affiliate faculty members! His research group focuses on the relationship between molecular structure and drug-like properties, especially cell permeability ⚗️

Winifred Frick is Chief Scientist at Bat Conservation International and one of our our newest affiliate faculty members! As Chief Scientist, she directs high priority research and development of scalable solutions for achieving meaningful conservation outcomes for bats 🦇

DNA-based liquid biopsies often miss the early signs of cancer which is why UC Santa Cruz Professor Daniel Kim seeks to improve the diagnosis of early-stage cancers by creating a highly sensitive and specific RNA liquid biopsy test that looks at RNA "dark matter." Read more about Kim's work here:

Advances in Liquid Biopsies: Improving Sensitivity and Earlier Detection This article will focus on some of the advances currently being made in the field of liquid biopsy, from attempts to improve the sensitivity of tests, to using bodily fluids other than blood.

"When I began I didn’t really know much about bioinformatics but the TUBI program made a safe space to learn and make mistakes!" says Mansi Khare one of our outstanding former TUBI students. She is currently an undergraduate researcher in the Vaske Lab! Read about her experience in TUBI and her current research: https://ow.ly/Vavr50Rpjaj

Please give a warm welcome to Brad Colquitt! We are very excited to have Brad as a new affiliate faculty member! The Colquitt Lab studies the development and evolution of sensorimotor behaviors, using birdsong and its neural circuitry as a model system 🐦

Thank you to everyone who joined us for DNA Day today- it was a blast! 🧬

The process of distinguishing cells from their background in order to study them is both time-consuming and laborious but UC Santa Cruz researcher Ali Shariati has developed a microscopy image generation AI model to solve this problem! Learn more at https://news.ucsc.edu/2024/04/shariati-iscience-24.html

Meet Josh Arribere, one of the Genomics Institutes's new affiliate faculty members 🎉 The Arribere Lab studies how information is decoded from the genome, focusing on the understudied steps of mRNA translation (protein synthesis) and mRNA decay!

Congratulations to our Associate Director for Paleogenomics, Beth Shapiro, on being named a fellow of the AAAS - The American Association for the Advancement of Science! 🎉

Just one week away 🎉 Come out at join us at Baskin Engineering at UC Santa Cruz for DNA DAY on April 26th, 11-1 in the Baskin Engineering Courtyard!
https://calendar.ucsc.edu/event/dna_day_celebration_6755

Using genomics to understand genetic diversity from plants to viruses to animals has been the ultimate goal of the Corbett-Detig lab. Read more about their work to harness its power to share pathogen data in real-time and leverage it to preserve biodiversity at https://engineering.ucsc.edu/news/genomics-on-the-ground-level/

Congratulations to Genomics Institute affiliate Holger Schmidt, UCSC Innovator of the Year 🎉 Holger received this award for his work on highly sensitive devices that can be used to detect biomarkers of disease for highly accurate and rapid diagnostics. 🎥

UCSC Innovator of the Year Award 2023: Holger Schmidt UC Santa Cruz Chancellor’s Innovation Impact Awards: 2023 Innovator of the Year Award Holger Schmidt, Distinguished Professor, Electrical & Computer Engineer...

🎉🎉🎉 Huge congratulations to UCSC Genomics Institute Scientific Director David Haussler on receiving the Lifetime Achievement Award 🏆 at UC Santa Cruz's Innovation Awards Ceremony last week! Haussler and his team were instrumental in saving the human genome from being patented by a private company during the Human Genome Project in 2000, but that was just the beginning. Watch the video on his continued innovation in the field of genomics:

UCSC Lifetime Achievement in Innovation 2023: David Haussler UC Santa Cruz Chancellor’s Innovation Impact Awards: 2023 Innovator of the Year AwardDavid Haussler, distinguished professor of biomolecular engineering in t...

Give a warm welcome to one of our newest affiliate faculty members Manny Ares! Ares' lab centers on dismantling the mechanisms and regulation of splicing using genetics and biochemistry 🧬