A Free Public Symposium Friday, May 1, 2026 Merrill Cultural Center, UC Santa Cruz Main Campus Doors open at 12:30 PM | Program begins at 1:00 PM Registration is free but required! In the 25 years since the Human Genome Project, scientists have sequenced the DNA of thousands of species. But what can genomics actually […]
Presenter: Katherine Bonini, Senior Genetic Counselor @ Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Description: It has long been argued that families are central to genomic medicine. Genomic risk, diagnosis, and management are rarely confined to a single individual, and separating patients’ interests from those of their relatives is often neither straightforward nor desirable. Despite this, […]
Presenter: Aubrey Streit Krug; Director of the Perennial Cultures Lab at The Land Institute About the speaker: Aubrey Streit Krug is a writer and researcher who investigates relationships among humans, plants, and places. She is the Director of the Perennial Cultures Lab at The Land Institute. She leads a team devoted to collaboratively advancing social […]
Presenter: Dr. Susanne Haga, Professor in Medicine @ Duke University About the speaker: Dr. Haga’s research focuses on the translation of genomics into clinical practice. A central theme across her work is education, spanning professional, public, and patient audiences. Her projects have encompassed the development of educational materials on genomic research, pharmacogenetic testing, and the communication of […]
Presenter: Dr. Magdalena Zernicka-Goetz, Bren Professor of Biology and Biological Engineering, California Institute of Technology Description: N/A Bio: Magdalena Zernicka-Goetz is a Bren Professor of Biology and Biological Engineering at the California Institute of Technology. Over the past 25 years, the Zernicka-Goetz Lab has pioneered key discoveries in early mammalian development, including the first studies […]
The STEM Culture Festival is returning to UC Santa Cruz on Friday, May 15 from 1-4pm in the Baskin Engineering Courtyard. Join us! This year, we’re expanding with even more […]
Welcome to the premier physical AI hackathon on the West Coast. We are bringing together the top 200 AI, infrastructure, and hardware engineers to build autonomous, agentic applications on the […]
Sequencing technologies have revolutionized our understanding of biology, yet many existing methods require fragmentation of DNA or RNA, fundamentally limiting our ability to study these molecules in their native, intact forms. Long-read sequencing overcomes this constraint by enabling the sequencing of long, single-molecule native DNA and RNA, providing simultaneous access to both sequence and base […]
Centromeric DNA is critical for accurate chromosome segregation and genome stability, but due to its repetitive nature, it was only recently fully included in a human reference. Rapid evolution and sequence diversity in these regions limit the utility of one reference sequence, however. Integrating centromeric and pericentromeric satellite DNA – which together constitute over 5% […]
Presenter: Dr. Ann Mc Cartney Location: Virtual. Please register here: https://ucsc.zoom.us/meeting/register/ciShTZsyRViYxMDjCc_cAQ#/registration Abstract: In 2007 the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) that supports Indigenous Peoples’ inherent rights to self-determination and governance over Indigenous Peoples, territories and resources. This codification in an international treaty led to the […]
The annual BE Student Project Showcase celebrates the innovative work and accomplishments of undergraduate engineers in capstone courses and research pathways.
Presenter: Dylan Shropshire, Assistant Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences, Lehigh University Description: Maternally transmitted Wolbachia bacteria inhabit roughly half of all arthropod species, making them likely the most common animal-associated microbe on Earth. Wolbachia alter host reproduction, persist across deep evolutionary timescales, and move into new host species in ways that we are only beginning to resolve. Wolbachia’s […]
Please join us for our BME 280B seminar series Thursday (5/28/26) in person at Biomed 200. The event will run from 11:40 AM to 1:15 PM and feature our 4th year grad talks. 11:40AM – 11:50AM: Ivana Pacar 11:53AM – 12:03PM: Jesus Gonzalez Ferrer 12:06PM – 12:16PM: Connor Mattingly 12:19PM – 12:29PM: Samira Vera 12:32PM – 12:42PM: Nick Chu 12:45PM […]
Presenter: Katherine Bonini, Senior Genetic Counselor @ Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Description: It has long been argued that families are central to genomic medicine. Genomic risk, diagnosis, and management are rarely confined to a single individual, and separating patients’ interests from those of their relatives is often neither straightforward nor desirable. Despite this, […]
Intracellular symbionts are microorganisms, such as bacteria, that live within host cells. These associations are widespread throughout the invertebrate tree of life, and can perform a diversity of key metabolic, immune-response, or other functions that the host is dependent on for survival or reproduction. Intracellular symbioses allow both the host and the symbiont to occupy […]
Centromeres ensure proper chromosome segregation during cell division, yet the organization and regulation of centromeric chromatin within satellite DNA arrays remain incompletely understood. Here, we leverage the complete diploid human genome benchmark (T2T-HG002) to provide a detailed study of centromeric sequence and chromatin architecture on individual haplotypes. Using adaptive-sampling-enriched, ultra-long-read DiMeLo-seq, we achieve single-molecule chromatin […]
Many genetics pipelines start by aligning sequencing reads to a reference genome. Aligners attempt to find the position in the reference sequence which best matches the read sequence, but this […]
Presenter: Stephen Montgomery, Endowed Professor of Pathology, Genetics, Biomedical Data Science, Computer Science, Stanford University Description: N/A Bio: Stephen Montgomery is an Endowed Professor of Pathology, Genetics, Biomedical Data Science and, by courtesy, Computer Science at Stanford University. He has trained in multiple countries including Canada, Germany, England, and Switzerland. He is best […]
Please note: Following this lecture, the Genomics Institute’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee will host a reception on the Baskin Engineering Lanai with Dr. Kirshenbaum where we can continue the discussion on how to effectively engage lawmakers and the public to value and support genomic science. Presenter: Dr. Sheril Kirshenbaum Abstract: Science shapes our world, but meaningful policy engagement […]
Presenter: Mario Stanke, Professor of Bioinformatics, University of Greifswald Description: This talk will explore recent machine learning approaches for eukaryotic genome annotation. Our supervised ab initio deep gene finder, Tiberius, correctly predicts more than four times as many human protein-coding gene structures as its father, Augustus, and in some clades, it approaches the accuracy of […]