New ways to compare thousands of human and vertebrate genomes
Official title: New methods for studying thousands of complete human and vertebrate genomes
Funded at University of California Santa Cruz · NIH-11423699 · Data updated 2026-11-12
Aims to build scalable genome comparison tools and new formats to analyze genomes from thousands of species, with a focus on human and neurodevelopmental regions relevant to autism.
Quick facts
| Grant type | R01 grant |
|---|---|
| Study type | NIH-funded research |
| Funding institution | University of California Santa Cruz NIH-funded |
| Lab location | 1 site (Santa Cruz, United States) |
| Project start | September 26, 2025 |
| Project end | June 30, 2029 |
| Funding year | 2026 |
| Award (this year) | $610,815 |
| NIH project number | 5R01HG014490-02 |
| Project ID | NIH-11423699 on NIH RePORTER |
Who could benefit from this research
✓Could help
Individuals with neurodevelopmental concerns or autism who may benefit from improved genomic insights into conditions like autistic disorder and related regions such as 1q21.
✕Less likely to help
Healthy individuals or those not undergoing genomic testing for neurodevelopmental concerns may not directly benefit.
What this research studies
This project will create a fast, automated pipeline to align and compare genomes from many species, including humans, and will introduce new data formats to handle huge genomic datasets. It plans to tackle the challenge of assembling complete human genomes and centromeric regions, using advanced graph models and repeat-aware methods. A specific example will be the 1q21 region, which is linked to several neurodevelopmental conditions, to better understand its structure across humans and apes. The work will produce the deepest vertebrate alignments to date and share the tools with the research community.
Why it matters
Potential benefit: If successful, patients could benefit from a clearer understanding of genetic regions linked to neurodevelopmental disorders and faster, more accurate genomic analyses.
How similar studies have gone: Previous genome alignment efforts have improved comparative genomics; this project aims to scale up and refine methods to handle thousands of genomes and complex regions.
Where this research is happening
-
University of California Santa Cruz
Santa Cruz, United States Active
Researchers
- Principal investigator: Paten, Benedict — University of California Santa Cruz
- Study coordinator: Paten, Benedict
About this research
- This is an active NIH-funded research project — typically early-stage science, not a clinical trial accepting patient enrollment.
- Some NIH-funded labs run parallel clinical studies or seek volunteers for related work. To check, contact the principal investigator or institution listed above.
- For full project details, budget, and progress reports, visit the official NIH RePORTER page.