News
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World’s first “de-extinction” is accomplished
Beth Shapiro, who literally wrote the book on de-extinction while she was a professor at UC Santa Cruz and is currently on leave from the university while she serves as Colossal’s Chief Science Officer, helped the company to de-extinct the dire wolf. She and Colossal’s CEO, Ben Lamm, have argued that the technologies they are…
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Brain cells are more plastic than previously thought, study shows
Neurons are the cells in the brain responsible for sending messages to the rest of the body, and scientists have long thought that they are settled into one subtype once they develop from stem cells, no matter what is happening in the environment around them. New research from the Braingeneers reveals that this traditional way of thinking…
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David Deamer named 2024 AAAS fellow
Emeritus Genomics Institute affiliate David Deamer was awarded the lifetime honor along with UCSC Professors Theodore Holman and Raphael Kudela. Deamer researched the foundational science needed to create nanopore sequencing, a revolutionary method for reading DNA and RNA.
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The Human Genome Project’s legacy is still yielding new advances
At the 25th anniversary of the Human Genome Project, the Tech Brew looks back at what it has accomplished, and how its legacy of combining computation and biology has set the stage for future applications in medicine and new advances in AI-powered life sciences at the UC Santa Cruz Genomics Institute.
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Scientists program stem cells to mimic first days of embryonic development
March 20, 2025 By Emily Cerf The earliest days after fertilization, once a sperm cell meets an egg, are shrouded in scientific mystery. The process of how a humble single cell becomes an organism fascinates scientists across disciplines. For some animals, the entire process of cellular multiplication, generation of specialized cells, and their organization into an…
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Clinical pediatric cancer lab at UC Santa Cruz is cleared to accept and test patient samples
The UC Santa Cruz Colligan Clinical Diagnostic Laboratory (CCDL) will use a newly clinically validated RNA test that they have developed that could identify life-saving treatment options, particularly for pediatric cancer patients.
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New biology study reveals four novel genes required for male fertility in mice
Genomics Institute affiliate Upasna Sharma has conducted pioneering research to determine how a father’s life experiences and environment can influence the health and wellbeing of his children. Her most recent discovery could have important implications for understanding male infertility.
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Newest Genome Browser features highlight the power of generative AI and machine learning for biology
The UCSC Genome Browser has added two new datasets that leverage the power of generative AI and machine learning to interpret information about genetic variants and more rapidly assess which ones might be harmful to human health. These datasets, from AlphaMissense and VarChat, are available as “tracks” on the two most widely used human reference…
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New grant funds effort to uncover therapeutic targets for neuropsychiatric disorders
By Emily Cerf A $10.3 million grant from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM), the state’s stem cell agency, will fund a multi-UC effort to better understand neuropsychiatric disorders. One in five people in the U.S. experience a neuropsychiatric disorder, with many cases starting in adolescence. Current treatments focus on managing symptoms, but there’s an…
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Innovation Catalyst Grants propel research into real-world solutions
Awardees include innovations in preclinical testing, drug discovery, and biosensors by Genomics Institute core member Mircea Teodorescu and affiliates Andy Yeh and Nader Pourmand.
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New UCOP Grant to Explore Autism Spectrum Disorder Using 3D Brain Organoid Models
The University of California’s Office of the President has awarded QB3 a $1.8 million grant by the to explore the origins of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The funds will support researchers in the “Braingeneers” group at UC Santa Cruz, UCSF, and UC Berkeley who will use brain organoids (3D models of neural networks grown from…
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25 years of the UCSC Genome Browser
When Katie Pollard first began working toward her Ph.D. in biostatistics at UC Berkeley in the late 90s, the human genome had not yet been sequenced. Then, on July 7, 2000, UC Santa Cruz published the HGCP’s first draft of a sequence online. Suddenly, a whole new field of genomics sprung into being. It was…