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2023 Biomolecular Engineering

November 29, 2023
UCSC’s 2023 iGEM team grabs fourth consecutive gold medal and nomination for best software tool at international competition
A team of UC Santa Cruz students won a gold medal at the 2023 International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) Grand Jamboree, marking their fourth consecutive year of bringing home the prize, and were nominated as best software tool for the first time.
November 29, 2023
2023 list of most highly cited researchers includes 18 UC Santa Cruz scientists and engineers
In a notable recognition of scholarly achievement, 18 scientists and engineers from UC Santa Cruz have earned a spot on the 2023 Highly Cited Researchers list, recently unveiled by Clarivate.
October 24, 2023
Bacteria can enhance host insect’s fertility with implications for disease control
New research led at UC Santa Cruz reveals how the bacteria strain Wolbachia pipientis enhances the fertility of the insects it infects, an insight that could help scientists increase the populations of mosquitoes that do not carry human disease.
October 04, 2023
UCSC iGEM 2023 addressing harmful algal blooms through synthetic biology
A team of UCSC undergraduate students is designing and assembling a plasmid that targets the toxic genes of a type of freshwater bacteria responsible for harmful algal blooms.
October 02, 2023
Biotech founder and hero of the Human Genome Project joins UC Santa Cruz Genomics Institute as Executive Director
The UC Santa Cruz Genomics Institute has selected scientist, entrepreneur, and executive Lauren Linton as their new Executive Director.
October 02, 2023
Genome study reveals 30 years of Darwin’s finch evolution
A study led by UC Santa Cruz postdoctoral scholar of Genomics & Bioinformatics Erik Enbody paints a dynamic picture of how species adapt to changing environments.
September 27, 2023
UCSC’s David Deamer and Mark Akeson honored for invention of nanopore sequencing
UCSC's David Deamer and Mark Akeson won the AAAS Golden Goose award for the invention of nanopore sequencing, a transformational technology for reading DNA and RNA.
September 19, 2023
Innovation Catalyst Grants help early-stage innovators with resources, training, and financial support
Two UC Santa Cruz research teams that can make impactful advancements in drug discovery and human health outcomes have been chosen as recipients of the university’s inaugural Innovation Catalyst Grants program. These new grants, administered by the Innovation & Business Engagement Hub, are designed to support and propel early-stage technology innovations developed by UCSC researchers.
September 11, 2023
2023 ARCS Foundation scholarships support UCSC graduate students in the sciences and engineering
Sixteen UC Santa Cruz graduate students have received scholarships worth a total of $175,000 from the Achievement Rewards for College Scientists (ARCS) Foundation for the 2023-24 academic year.
September 07, 2023
Empowering dreams
Alumna Birong Hu’s generous gift to Girls in Engineering paves the way for a new era of engineers, unlocking boundless opportunities and transforming futures.
September 01, 2023
GREAT program creates new opportunities for students to participate in research
This summer, the “Genome Research Experiences to Attract Talented Undergraduates into the Genomics Field to Enhance Diversity” (GREAT) programmed welcomed six students from California State University Monterey Bay (CSUMB) to an intensive eight-week research program at UC Santa Cruz.
August 31, 2023
New blood test for noncoding RNA significantly improves cancer detection
Assistant Professor of Biomolecular Engineering Daniel Kim and his lab are developing more accurate and powerful liquid biopsy technologies that take advantage of signals from RNA “dark matter,” an understudied area of the genome.
August 23, 2023
10 mysteries of the Y chromosome
Researchers have just completed the first full sequence of a Y chromosome — what will we learn?
August 23, 2023
Scientists release the first complete sequence of a human Y chromosome
Scientists have completed the first full sequence of a human Y chromosome, completing the set of end-to-end human chromosomes and helping researchers to better understand human reproduction, evolution, and population change.
August 23, 2023
Koerner Family Foundation provides funds for five UCSC graduate students
Five UC Santa Cruz doctoral candidates in Baskin Engineering were awarded a fellowship that covered nearly one-third of their tuition and fees in the 2022-2023 academic year.
June 13, 2023
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.
May 18, 2023
Karen Miga named 2023 Searle Scholar to study uncharted regions of the human genome
Karen Miga, assistant professor of biomolecular engineering at UC Santa Cruz, has been named a 2023 Searle Scholar.
May 17, 2023
Comb jellies proven to be the sibling group to all other animals
New research proves comb jellies are a unique lineage or “sibling group” whose ancestors diverged before the common ancestor of all other animals.
May 16, 2023
UCSC ranked number two on Wall Street Journal list for top public colleges for high-paying jobs in engineering
New rankings from the Wall Street Journal place UC Santa Cruz as the number two public school for high-paying jobs in engineering, just behind UC Berkeley, and the number nine public school for high-paying jobs in data science and software.
May 10, 2023
Human pangenome reference will enable more complete and equitable understanding of genomic diversity
UC Santa Cruz scientists, along with a consortium of researchers, have released a draft of the first human pangenome—a new, usable reference for genomics that combines the genetic information of 47 individuals from different ancestral backgrounds to allow for a deeper, more accurate understanding of worldwide genomic diversity.
May 09, 2023
UC Santa Cruz to lead data collection center for major federal project on genetic underpinnings of neurological conditions
The UC Santa Cruz Genomics Institute will run the Data Coordination Center for the Scalable and Systematic Neurobiology of Psychiatric and Neurodevelopmental Disorder Risk Genes (SSPsyGene) Consortium.
May 03, 2023
Ed Green named QB3-Santa Cruz Scientific Director
Richard (Ed) Green, professor of biomolecular engineering, has been selected to serve as the next director of the California Institute of Quantitative Biosciences (QB3) at UC Santa Cruz.
April 27, 2023
Genome of famed sled dog Balto reveals genetic adaptations of working dogs
Still a good boy nearly 100 years after historic sled run, Balto has now helped scientists explore the genetics of working dogs and demonstrate the power of comparative genomics.
April 12, 2023
Naming system for transfer RNA fragments will increase research productivity, standardization
UC Santa Cruz Professor of Biomolecular Engineering Todd Lowe and his group created a new naming scheme for tRNA fragments aimed at standardizing research.
April 06, 2023
Two major stem cell research projects supported with more than $2.6 million in funding
The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) will provide more than $2.6 million in total funding for two major stem cell research projects led by scientists at UC Santa Cruz, the organization announced.
March 30, 2023
New program advises UCSC Ph.D. students on their path to entrepreneurship and venture capital
Many student-led innovations never make it out of the lab. A new program at UC Santa Cruz aims to change that by mentoring Ph.D. students in the life sciences on alternative career pathways outside academia: entrepreneurship and venture capital.
January 17, 2023
Researchers produce first-ever toolkit for RNA sequencing analysis using a ‘pantranscriptome’
Researchers at UC Santa Cruz introduce the first-ever method for analyzing RNA sequencing data genome-wide using a “pantranscriptome.”