Category: News
-
New blood test for noncoding RNA significantly improves cancer detection
Cancer is most treatable in its early stages, so finding innovative and non-invasive methods to diagnose cancer early on is crucial for fighting the disease. Liquid biopsies, which require just a simple blood draw, are an emerging technology for non-invasively testing for cancer using DNA or RNA sequencing of a patient’s blood.
-
Ten Mysteries of the Y Chromosome
The Y chromosome is full of mysteries. What will researchers discover now that they have finally completed sequencing it? We share our top ten questions about the Y chromosome, and the answers we have so far!
-
Scientists release the first complete sequence of a human Y chromosome
For decades, the Y chromosome – one of the two human sex chromosomes – has been notoriously challenging for the genomics community to sequence due to the complexity of its structure. Now, this elusive area of the genome has been fully sequenced, a feat that finally completes the set of end-to-end human chromosomes and adds…
-
The Race to Save the World’s DNA
The New Yorker magazine’s Matthew Hutson reports on how the Earth BioGenome Project aims “to analyze every plant, animal, and fungus before it’s too late.” UC Santa Cruz’s Benedict Paten is helping them solve the “vast computational challenge” involved in comparing animal genomes, and Ann McCartney is helping to incorporate indigenous data sovereignty into the…
-
A childhood cancer survivor becomes a cancer researcher
Robert McCabe of Anchorage, Alaska, is a 15-year-old avid bowler, a fan of baseball and basketball, and a rising high school sophomore who hopes to be an engineer one day. He is also a pediatric cancer survivor, and most recently, a pediatric cancer researcher. This summer, he helped to sequence and analyze a tumor sample…
-
First DNA analysis of Machu Picchu residents offers insight into Inca society
The first investigation of genomic diversity among people buried at Machu Picchu has revealed that the subjects of this 15th century civilization came from a surprising range of ancestries. The DNA of the remains was highly degraded, but scientists were still able to sequence it with techniques developed at UC Santa Cruz Genomics.
-
St. Baldrick’s Foundation grant will expand pediatric cancer research at UCSC
A new $100,000 grant from the St. Baldrick’s Foundation will provide UC Santa Cruz’s Treehouse Childhood Cancer Initiative funding to expand efforts to study rare pediatric cancers.
-
UCSC researcher is on the cutting edge of RSV vaccines
UC Santa Cruz Genomics Institute affiliate Rebecca DuBois is creating virtual 3D maps of viral proteins to find weaknesses in RSV, the respiratory disease that contributed to 2022’s “tripledemic” along with cases of flu and COVID-19.
-
Novel deep learning-based software detects and tracks individual cells with high precision
Assistant Professor of Biomolecular Engineering Ali Shariati and doctoral student Abolfazl Zarageri together with several student researchers in the Shariati lab have developed and released a new deep learning model called “DeepSea,” one of the only tools with the ability to segment cells, track them and detect their division to follow lineages of cells.
-
Anti-Racist symposium challenges participants to envision a more inclusive genomics
Rose Miyatsu | UCSC | June 5, 2023 On May 19, members of the UC Santa Cruz Genomics Institute gathered to participate in a half-day symposium aimed at strengthening our commitment to anti-racist action and sparking conversations about how to make genomics a more inclusive field. The event hosted four guest speakers, a panel of…
-
Russ Corbett-Detig, David Deamer, and Mark Akeson receive Chancellor Innovation Awards
UC Santa Cruz announces recipients of Chancellor’s Innovation Impact Awards The awards recognize transformational work across UC Santa Cruz – in the arts, engineering, humanities, physical and biological sciences, and social sciences. Sandra Messick | UCSC | June 2, 2023 Tracking COVID-19, DNA sequencing, and prison abolition were among the groundbreaking research and creative scholarship…
-
UC Santa Cruz to lead data collection center for major federal project on genetic underpinnings of neurological conditions
Emily Cerf | UCSC News | May 9, 2023 A five-year grant from the NIMH, which is a branch of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), puts a UCSC-led team in charge of managing the large, complex data sets that will be created throughout this project. The data generation centers for the consortium will be:…