Month: July 2022
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Help our CALeDNA efforts: Become a citizen scientist
Julia Paskin | LAist | July 25, 2022 Researchers want your help to collect samples at four specific locations in Los Angeles as part of a much wider effort in the state to learn about changes in biodiversity. The project, called CALeDNA, for California Environmental DNA, encourages everyone to be a citizen scientist. Volunteers get a kit to…
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Steve Kang celebrates a career of seizing challenges
(Kang at the 2022 ISCAS Conference in Texas.) Emily Cerf | UCSC | July 25, 2022 As the first in his family to graduate college and in taking on positions as the second dean of the Baskin School of Engineering and chancellor of UC Merced, Sung-Mo “Steve” Kang has always been someone ready and willing…
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Genomics Institute affiliates discuss importance of reference genomes for conservation
UCSC | July 21, 2022 As of 2022, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List estimates that more than 32% of fungal, plant, and animal species are threatened with extinction. This sixth mass extinction is caused by the activities and expanding biomass of humans, necessitating a distinct name for this geological epoch—the…
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Working Toward a ‘Holy Grail’ Blood Test to Diagnose Cancer Years Before Symptoms
UCSC | July, 2022 Researchers in the Daniel Kim lab have discovered previously unknown biomarkers that are released from RNA in the very early stages of cancer. This discovery could lead to the development of tests to measure for these biomarkers in healthy-seeming patients. Detecting cancer earlier, when it is easier to treat, could save…
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UCSC scholars join researchers statewide on a massive genomic study of California’s biodiversity
The state-funded genomics project aims to be a lasting resource for shaping conservation policy Emily Cerf | UCSC | July 6, 2022 When UC Santa Cruz postdoctoral scholar Merly Escalona assembled the first-ever reference genome for the Stephen Colbert Trapdoor Spider, she was shocked by the dataset’s unexpectedly large size. For a small invertebrate, this…
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ASPIRE program launches to aid conservation in a changing climate
During the most severe megadrought in a millennium, a new program out of the UC Santa Cruz Genomics Institute involves students in an effort to measure changes in biodiversity and ultimately prevent them.