Karen Miga
@khmiga.bsky.social
Associate Professor of Biomolecular Engineering at the University of California, Santa Cruz; Associate Director, UC Santa Cruz Genomics Institute
Proud to participate in #RallyMedRes to advocate for biomedical research funding. Hundreds of participants discussing the importance of #FUNDNIH and the impact on research, training, and patient health across US
September 18, 2025 at 11:23 PM
Proud to participate in #RallyMedRes to advocate for biomedical research funding. Hundreds of participants discussing the importance of #FUNDNIH and the impact on research, training, and patient health across US
Reposted by Karen Miga
#1 Centromeres are epigenetic loci defined by CENP-A, positioned in unmethylated DNA flanked by highly methylated regions. Our work, published in @natgenet.nature.com in collaboration with @naltemose.bsky.social investigates the role of DNAme at human centromeres www.nature.com/articles/s41...
DNA methylation influences human centromere positioning and function - Nature Genetics
Genome-wide and targeted perturbation of DNA methylation at centromeres affects CENP-A positioning and centromere structure, resulting in aneuploidy and reduced cell viability.
www.nature.com
September 4, 2025 at 1:10 PM
#1 Centromeres are epigenetic loci defined by CENP-A, positioned in unmethylated DNA flanked by highly methylated regions. Our work, published in @natgenet.nature.com in collaboration with @naltemose.bsky.social investigates the role of DNAme at human centromeres www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by Karen Miga
The Sudmant lab at UC Berkeley is seeking a postdoc to work on a fully funded NIH project to understand differences in DNA repair and somatic mutation across the primate tree of life. Please spread widely to those who may be interested aprecruit.berkeley.edu/JPF05052
Postdoctoral Scholar – Genomics, Aging, Somatic Mutation, Structural Variation, Evolution , Cancer – Integrative Biology
University of California, Berkeley is hiring. Apply now!
aprecruit.berkeley.edu
August 13, 2025 at 4:22 AM
The Sudmant lab at UC Berkeley is seeking a postdoc to work on a fully funded NIH project to understand differences in DNA repair and somatic mutation across the primate tree of life. Please spread widely to those who may be interested aprecruit.berkeley.edu/JPF05052
Reposted by Karen Miga
Spindle checkpoint can secure additional cheating time for selfish expanded centromeres cell.com/current-biol...
@currentbiology.bsky.social @takashiakeralab.bsky.social
@currentbiology.bsky.social @takashiakeralab.bsky.social
Spindle checkpoint can secure additional cheating time for selfish expanded centromeres
Expanded centromere DNA repeats violate Mendel’s law of segregation by preferentially
segregating to the egg in animals and plants. Using oocytes collected from hybrid
mice, Walton et al. show that th...
cell.com
August 4, 2025 at 5:12 PM
Spindle checkpoint can secure additional cheating time for selfish expanded centromeres cell.com/current-biol...
@currentbiology.bsky.social @takashiakeralab.bsky.social
@currentbiology.bsky.social @takashiakeralab.bsky.social
Reposted by Karen Miga
Choose Science. Choose Europe.
A new Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Postdoctoral Fellowships 2025 call is now open.
With a budget of €404.3 million, it will support around 1,650 researchers from Europe and beyond.
Apply by 10 September → europa.eu/!fBTMgF
A new Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Postdoctoral Fellowships 2025 call is now open.
With a budget of €404.3 million, it will support around 1,650 researchers from Europe and beyond.
Apply by 10 September → europa.eu/!fBTMgF
May 8, 2025 at 10:12 AM
Choose Science. Choose Europe.
A new Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Postdoctoral Fellowships 2025 call is now open.
With a budget of €404.3 million, it will support around 1,650 researchers from Europe and beyond.
Apply by 10 September → europa.eu/!fBTMgF
A new Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Postdoctoral Fellowships 2025 call is now open.
With a budget of €404.3 million, it will support around 1,650 researchers from Europe and beyond.
Apply by 10 September → europa.eu/!fBTMgF
Reposted by Karen Miga
The human pangenome continues to grow and improve! Release 2 is here! Click through for the details, but this is a pretty amazing dataset including not just the phased assemblies, but PacBio HiFi, ONT Ultralong, Dovetail/Illumina Hi-C, PacBio Kinnex, and Illumina WGS for all samples
📢 HPRC Release 2 is here!
Now with phased genomes from 200+ individuals, a 5x increase from Release 1.
Explore sequencing data, assemblies, annotations & alignments in our interactive data explorer ⬇️:
humanpangenome.org/hprc-data-re...
Now with phased genomes from 200+ individuals, a 5x increase from Release 1.
Explore sequencing data, assemblies, annotations & alignments in our interactive data explorer ⬇️:
humanpangenome.org/hprc-data-re...
May 12, 2025 at 1:52 PM
The human pangenome continues to grow and improve! Release 2 is here! Click through for the details, but this is a pretty amazing dataset including not just the phased assemblies, but PacBio HiFi, ONT Ultralong, Dovetail/Illumina Hi-C, PacBio Kinnex, and Illumina WGS for all samples
Reposted by Karen Miga
📢 HPRC Release 2 is here!
Now with phased genomes from 200+ individuals, a 5x increase from Release 1.
Explore sequencing data, assemblies, annotations & alignments in our interactive data explorer ⬇️:
humanpangenome.org/hprc-data-re...
Now with phased genomes from 200+ individuals, a 5x increase from Release 1.
Explore sequencing data, assemblies, annotations & alignments in our interactive data explorer ⬇️:
humanpangenome.org/hprc-data-re...
May 12, 2025 at 1:15 PM
📢 HPRC Release 2 is here!
Now with phased genomes from 200+ individuals, a 5x increase from Release 1.
Explore sequencing data, assemblies, annotations & alignments in our interactive data explorer ⬇️:
humanpangenome.org/hprc-data-re...
Now with phased genomes from 200+ individuals, a 5x increase from Release 1.
Explore sequencing data, assemblies, annotations & alignments in our interactive data explorer ⬇️:
humanpangenome.org/hprc-data-re...
Reposted by Karen Miga
"For me, the answer now lies in refusal, the withdrawal of participation from systems that require dishonesty as the price of belonging."
Today I am resigning from the National Science Board and the Library of Congress Scholars Council.
I wrote about my decision in TIME.
time.com/7285045/resi...
Today I am resigning from the National Science Board and the Library of Congress Scholars Council.
I wrote about my decision in TIME.
time.com/7285045/resi...
Why I’m Resigning from the NSF and Library of Congress
I cannot participate in systems that require dishonesty as the price of belonging.
time.com
May 13, 2025 at 11:19 AM
"For me, the answer now lies in refusal, the withdrawal of participation from systems that require dishonesty as the price of belonging."
Today I am resigning from the National Science Board and the Library of Congress Scholars Council.
I wrote about my decision in TIME.
time.com/7285045/resi...
Today I am resigning from the National Science Board and the Library of Congress Scholars Council.
I wrote about my decision in TIME.
time.com/7285045/resi...
Reposted by Karen Miga
"Virtually all NIH-funded training programs aimed at attracting underrepresented groups to science are now gone. 'I’m concerned that these events are very likely to affect who decides to stay in science and we will lose important and necessary scientific talent'"
www.science.org/content/arti...
www.science.org/content/arti...
NIH insiders: Trump is ‘dismantling and destroying everything’
After just 100 days, agency scientists say U.S. health institutes are demoralized and have lost essential staff and funding
www.science.org
May 1, 2025 at 1:42 AM
"Virtually all NIH-funded training programs aimed at attracting underrepresented groups to science are now gone. 'I’m concerned that these events are very likely to affect who decides to stay in science and we will lose important and necessary scientific talent'"
www.science.org/content/arti...
www.science.org/content/arti...
Reposted by Karen Miga
A project five years in the making, we've now published complete "T2T" genomes for six additional ape species! It turns out that finishing (and analyzing) six genomes is slightly more work than one... doi.org/10.1038/s415...
April 9, 2025 at 9:31 PM
A project five years in the making, we've now published complete "T2T" genomes for six additional ape species! It turns out that finishing (and analyzing) six genomes is slightly more work than one... doi.org/10.1038/s415...
Reposted by Karen Miga
Our new paper on the rapid evolution of centromeres in Drosophila is out! 🚀 Discover how transposable elements and satellite DNAs shape centromere dynamics and drive karyotype evolution over short timescales. @amlarracuente.bsky.social 🌟 Check it out here: journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...
Turnover of retroelements and satellite DNA drives centromere reorganization over short evolutionary timescales in Drosophila
Centromeres reside in rapidly evolving, repeat-rich genomic regions, despite their essential function in chromosome segregation. This study of centromere evolution over short evolutionary timescales i...
journals.plos.org
November 21, 2024 at 10:02 PM
Our new paper on the rapid evolution of centromeres in Drosophila is out! 🚀 Discover how transposable elements and satellite DNAs shape centromere dynamics and drive karyotype evolution over short timescales. @amlarracuente.bsky.social 🌟 Check it out here: journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...
Reposted by Karen Miga
Working with an interdisciplinary team, we have developed a website to communicate how the White House's proposed cuts to health research would cause losses of $16B and 68,500 jobs.
Find out how your community may be impacted.
Explore more at SCIMaP: scienceimpacts.org
a 🧵
Find out how your community may be impacted.
Explore more at SCIMaP: scienceimpacts.org
a 🧵
March 28, 2025 at 2:15 AM
Working with an interdisciplinary team, we have developed a website to communicate how the White House's proposed cuts to health research would cause losses of $16B and 68,500 jobs.
Find out how your community may be impacted.
Explore more at SCIMaP: scienceimpacts.org
a 🧵
Find out how your community may be impacted.
Explore more at SCIMaP: scienceimpacts.org
a 🧵
Reposted by Karen Miga
Thank you @usrepjimmypanetta.bsky.social for coming to speak with us about how recent events at the NIH are dangerous for higher ed, the research enterprise and the health and economy of the US.
Biomedical research and CA higher ed is a scientific and economic engine for the state and the country.
Biomedical research and CA higher ed is a scientific and economic engine for the state and the country.
I convened a listening session with UC Santa Cruz researchers and faculty to hear how executive overreach and funding freezes are threatening education, research, and opportunity. We’ll keep fighting together to safeguard academic freedom, invest in science, & protect the progress that powers CA-19
March 25, 2025 at 8:46 PM
Thank you @usrepjimmypanetta.bsky.social for coming to speak with us about how recent events at the NIH are dangerous for higher ed, the research enterprise and the health and economy of the US.
Biomedical research and CA higher ed is a scientific and economic engine for the state and the country.
Biomedical research and CA higher ed is a scientific and economic engine for the state and the country.
Reposted by Karen Miga
I convened a listening session with UC Santa Cruz researchers and faculty to hear how executive overreach and funding freezes are threatening education, research, and opportunity. We’ll keep fighting together to safeguard academic freedom, invest in science, & protect the progress that powers CA-19
March 25, 2025 at 6:30 PM
I convened a listening session with UC Santa Cruz researchers and faculty to hear how executive overreach and funding freezes are threatening education, research, and opportunity. We’ll keep fighting together to safeguard academic freedom, invest in science, & protect the progress that powers CA-19
Reposted by Karen Miga
A pie graph worth keeping in mind as the NIH budget plummets jamanetwork.com/journals/jam... for 356 new FDA drugs approved
March 23, 2025 at 4:17 PM
A pie graph worth keeping in mind as the NIH budget plummets jamanetwork.com/journals/jam... for 356 new FDA drugs approved
Reposted by Karen Miga
Opinion piece in the @scsentinel.bsky.social by me, @carpenterlab.bsky.social and Carol Greider: Trump is turning off the lights on biomedical research: Why it matters for Santa Cruz
www.santacruzsentinel.com/2025/03/20/g...
www.santacruzsentinel.com/2025/03/20/g...
Guest Commentary | Trump is turning off the lights on biomedical research: Why it matters for Santa Cruz
“These cuts aren’t just about UCSC; they’re about Santa Cruz,” writes Needhi Bhalla, Susan Carpenter and Carol Greider in a Guest Commentary. “This crucial NIH support fuels our l…
www.santacruzsentinel.com
March 21, 2025 at 3:22 PM
Opinion piece in the @scsentinel.bsky.social by me, @carpenterlab.bsky.social and Carol Greider: Trump is turning off the lights on biomedical research: Why it matters for Santa Cruz
www.santacruzsentinel.com/2025/03/20/g...
www.santacruzsentinel.com/2025/03/20/g...
Reposted by Karen Miga
The New York Times is the first to put out comprehensive estimates on the cost of a year without U.S.A.I.D. and they’re higher than I thought:
- 1.65 million deaths from AIDS
- 500,000 from lack of vaccines
- 550,000 from lack of food aid
- 290,000 from malaria
- 310,000 from TB
- 1.65 million deaths from AIDS
- 500,000 from lack of vaccines
- 550,000 from lack of food aid
- 290,000 from malaria
- 310,000 from TB
Killing children is by design, I'm afraid. "Pro-natalists" like Musk claim they aren't racist, but their pressure to have children is solely focused on white women, while they back policies that literally kill of non-white children.
He's a eugenicist.
www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
He's a eugenicist.
www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
Opinion | Musk Said No One Has Died Since Aid Was Cut. That Isn’t True.
A journey through the front lines of global poverty shows that when the world’s richest men slash aid for the world’s poorest children, the result is sickness, starvation and death.
www.nytimes.com
March 15, 2025 at 4:42 PM
The New York Times is the first to put out comprehensive estimates on the cost of a year without U.S.A.I.D. and they’re higher than I thought:
- 1.65 million deaths from AIDS
- 500,000 from lack of vaccines
- 550,000 from lack of food aid
- 290,000 from malaria
- 310,000 from TB
- 1.65 million deaths from AIDS
- 500,000 from lack of vaccines
- 550,000 from lack of food aid
- 290,000 from malaria
- 310,000 from TB
Reposted by Karen Miga
Michael Yuan is recruiting graduate students and potential postdocs to join his new evolutionary ecology lab at TCU in Fort Worth (www.myuanlab.com). He has funds to fully support PhD students starting both this fall 2025 and fall 2026. Please RT.
Yuan Evolutionary Ecology Lab
www.myuanlab.com
March 12, 2025 at 11:04 PM
Michael Yuan is recruiting graduate students and potential postdocs to join his new evolutionary ecology lab at TCU in Fort Worth (www.myuanlab.com). He has funds to fully support PhD students starting both this fall 2025 and fall 2026. Please RT.
Reposted by Karen Miga
New report shows that NIH grants fueled $95 billion in economic activity and 407,782 jobs in 2024.
That's not to mention the countless lives that biomedical research has saved.
Show me a better investment than that.
www.forbes.com/sites/michae...
That's not to mention the countless lives that biomedical research has saved.
Show me a better investment than that.
www.forbes.com/sites/michae...
NIH Grants Fueled $95 Billion In FY 2024 Economic Activity, Finds New Report
National Institutes of Health grants generated almost $95 billion in economic activity nationwide in FY 2024 according to a new report by United for Medical Research.
www.forbes.com
March 12, 2025 at 8:47 PM
New report shows that NIH grants fueled $95 billion in economic activity and 407,782 jobs in 2024.
That's not to mention the countless lives that biomedical research has saved.
Show me a better investment than that.
www.forbes.com/sites/michae...
That's not to mention the countless lives that biomedical research has saved.
Show me a better investment than that.
www.forbes.com/sites/michae...
March 7, 2025 at 8:33 PM
Reposted by Karen Miga
New research introduces Panacus, a pangenome graph tool that quantifies shared sequences and genomic variability across samples.
Panacus efficiently processes GFA files and generates interactive visualizations, enabling deeper insights into pangenome growth and core genome size.
shorturl.at/Va66Q
Panacus efficiently processes GFA files and generates interactive visualizations, enabling deeper insights into pangenome growth and core genome size.
shorturl.at/Va66Q
Panacus: fast and exact pangenome growth and core size estimation
AbstractMotivation. Using a single linear reference genome poses a limitation to exploring the full genomic diversity of a species. The release of a draft
academic.oup.com
March 6, 2025 at 7:58 PM
New research introduces Panacus, a pangenome graph tool that quantifies shared sequences and genomic variability across samples.
Panacus efficiently processes GFA files and generates interactive visualizations, enabling deeper insights into pangenome growth and core genome size.
shorturl.at/Va66Q
Panacus efficiently processes GFA files and generates interactive visualizations, enabling deeper insights into pangenome growth and core genome size.
shorturl.at/Va66Q
Reposted by Karen Miga
Francis Collins, longtime NIH director with bipartisan bona fides*, retires as of yesterday.
He returned to NIH in 2023 to focus on research in his own lab, in the NIH in-house intramural research campus.
His letter seems to imply he wasn’t ready to leave. NIH is being torn down. 1/🧪 #academicsky
He returned to NIH in 2023 to focus on research in his own lab, in the NIH in-house intramural research campus.
His letter seems to imply he wasn’t ready to leave. NIH is being torn down. 1/🧪 #academicsky
March 1, 2025 at 3:25 PM
Francis Collins, longtime NIH director with bipartisan bona fides*, retires as of yesterday.
He returned to NIH in 2023 to focus on research in his own lab, in the NIH in-house intramural research campus.
His letter seems to imply he wasn’t ready to leave. NIH is being torn down. 1/🧪 #academicsky
He returned to NIH in 2023 to focus on research in his own lab, in the NIH in-house intramural research campus.
His letter seems to imply he wasn’t ready to leave. NIH is being torn down. 1/🧪 #academicsky
Reposted by Karen Miga
Researchers at @ucsantacruz.bsky.social have demonstrated how long-read sequencing could improve detection of diseases that have eluded diagnosis, at a fraction of the cost. New clinical tests could be on the way.
🗞 news.ucsc.edu/2025/01/pate...
👏🏼👏🏿👏🏾 @khmiga.bsky.social @benedictpaten.bsky.social
🗞 news.ucsc.edu/2025/01/pate...
👏🏼👏🏿👏🏾 @khmiga.bsky.social @benedictpaten.bsky.social
January 24, 2025 at 7:17 PM
Researchers at @ucsantacruz.bsky.social have demonstrated how long-read sequencing could improve detection of diseases that have eluded diagnosis, at a fraction of the cost. New clinical tests could be on the way.
🗞 news.ucsc.edu/2025/01/pate...
👏🏼👏🏿👏🏾 @khmiga.bsky.social @benedictpaten.bsky.social
🗞 news.ucsc.edu/2025/01/pate...
👏🏼👏🏿👏🏾 @khmiga.bsky.social @benedictpaten.bsky.social
Reposted by Karen Miga
Long-read special issue of GR is out, including our paper on T2T assembly using only Nanopore. Just in time for ONT to discontinue duplex cells on Nov 27 😅😂 Good thing Verkko also works great with HERRO-corrected simplex data!
📄 genome.cshlp.org/content/34/1...
📖 genome.cshlp.org/content/34/1...
📄 genome.cshlp.org/content/34/1...
📖 genome.cshlp.org/content/34/1...
Table of Contents — November 2024, 34 (11)
An international, peer-reviewed genome sciences journal featuring outstanding original research that offers novel insights into the biology of all organisms
genome.cshlp.org
November 21, 2024 at 12:50 AM
Long-read special issue of GR is out, including our paper on T2T assembly using only Nanopore. Just in time for ONT to discontinue duplex cells on Nov 27 😅😂 Good thing Verkko also works great with HERRO-corrected simplex data!
📄 genome.cshlp.org/content/34/1...
📖 genome.cshlp.org/content/34/1...
📄 genome.cshlp.org/content/34/1...
📖 genome.cshlp.org/content/34/1...