Genomics History & Milestones

1985
May 24-26 Chancellor Robert Sinsheimer convenes a group of eminent biologists in Santa Cruz to propose a massive, historic project to determine the complete DNA sequence of the human genome—our genetic blueprint. Read Dr. Sinheimer’s account of the Santa Cruz Workshop. For more about Robert Sinsheimer’s mark on the human genome project, read this 2017 feature story written following Sinsheimer’s death at age 97.


1990
1999




2000

2001

The Symposium included a scientific workshop and a public forum. Panelists at the forum were Francis Collins, director of the National Human Genome Research Institute; Robert Sinsheimer, chancellor emeritus and professor emeritus of biology, UC Santa Cruz; Gene Myers, vice-president of informatics research, Celera Genomics; and Mary-Claire King, professor of Medicine and Genetics, University of Washington. The moderator was Richard Harris, science reporter for National Public Radio and an alumnus of UCSC. The video and panel discussion recordings are available online.






2003
2004
May Genomics Institute publishes findings about ultra-conserved elements in the human genome that have remained unchanged through long periods of evolutionary history—one of Science magazine’s breakthroughs of the year.



2009

April An international team of collaborators, including David Haussler, launch the Genome 10K project to reach the milestone of sequencing the genomes of 10,000 vertebrate species. The initiative is funded in part by the first-ever grant from the UC Santa Cruz Foundation Board Opportunity Fund (BOF).

2010
May The Neanderthal genome draft sequence is posted on the UCSC Genome Browser and published with scientific findings in Science by UC Santa Cruz’s Richard E. (Ed) Green.


2011
2012



2013
2015




