UCSC Genome Bioinformatics
Genome Browser
Blat
Table Browser
Gene Sorter
In Silico PCR
Genome Graphs
Galaxy
VisiGene
Utilities
Downloads
Release Log
Custom Tracks
Cancer Browser
Microbial Genomes
ENCODE
Neandertal
Mirrors
Training
Blog
Credits
Publications
Cite Us
Licenses
Jobs
Staff
Contact Us

  About the UCSC Genome Bioinformatics Site

Welcome to the UCSC Genome Browser website. This site contains the reference sequence and working draft assemblies for a large collection of genomes. It also provides portals to ENCODE data at UCSC (2003 to 2012) and to the Neandertal project. Download or purchase the Genome Browser source code, or the Genome Browser in a Box (GBiB) at our online store.

We encourage you to explore these sequences with our tools. The Genome Browser zooms and scrolls over chromosomes, showing the work of annotators worldwide. The Gene Sorter shows expression, homology and other information on groups of genes that can be related in many ways. Blat quickly maps your sequence to the genome. The Table Browser provides convenient access to the underlying database. VisiGene lets you browse through a large collection of in situ mouse and frog images to examine expression patterns. Genome Graphs allows you to upload and display genome-wide data sets.

The UCSC Genome Browser is developed and maintained by the Genome Bioinformatics Group, a cross-departmental team within the UC Santa Cruz Genomics Institute at the University of California Santa Cruz (UCSC). If you have feedback or questions concerning the tools or data on this website, feel free to contact us on our public mailing list.

The Genome Browser project team relies on public funding to support our work. Donations are welcome -- we have many more ideas than our funding supports! If you have ideas, drop a comment in our suggestion box.

Give to the UCSC Genome Browser

  NewsFollow @GenomeBrowser on Twitter Genome Browser Facebook page

To receive announcements of new genome assembly releases, new software features, updates and training seminars by email, subscribe to the genome-announce mailing list. Please see our blog for posts about Genome Browser tools, features, projects and more.


23 September 2015 — New keyboard shortcuts on the Genome Browser!

We are excited to announce the addition of keyboard shortcuts to navigate the Genome Browser display! It's now possible to zoom in and out, navigate left and right, hide all tracks, configure the browser display and much more using only your keyboard. Use the "?" key to view the entire list of shortcuts. Happy browsing!

Credit goes to Max Haeussler for implementing this new feature.


14 September 2015 — Human Genome Browser default changed to GRCh38/hg38

In conjunction with the release of the new 100-species Conservation track on the hg38/GRCh38 human assembly, we have now changed the default human browser on our website from hg19 to hg38. This should not affect your current browsing sessions; if you were last looking at the hg19 (or older) browser, the Genome Browser will continue to display that assembly for you when you start it up. There are circumstances, however, in which the selected assembly can switch to the newer version. For instance, the assembly will switch to hg38 if you reset your browser defaults. If you find yourself in a situation where some of your favorite browser tracks have "disappeared", you may want to check that you're viewing the right assembly.

We will continue our efforts to expand the annotation track set on the hg38 browser to include many of the tracks present on previous human assemblies. In cases where it makes sense, data may be simply "lifted" from hg19 using migration tools. In many instances, however, we must rely on our data providers to generate new versions of their data on the latest assembly. We will publish these data sets as they become available.

For a summary of the new features in the GRCh38 assembly, see the overview we published in March 2014.


10 September 2015 — 100 Species Conservation Track now available on GRCh38/hg38

We are pleased to announce the release of a new Conservation track based on the human (GRCh38/hg38) assembly. This track shows multiple alignments of 100 vertebrate species and measurements of evolutionary conservation using two methods (phastCons and phyloP) from the PHAST package for all species. The multiple alignments were generated using multiz and other tools in the UCSC/Penn State Bioinformatics comparative genomics alignment pipeline. Conserved elements identified by phastCons are also displayed in this track. For more details, visit the track description page.

We would like to thank Hiram Clawson and Jonathan Casper for their efforts in creating this track.


12 August 2015 — New blog post: How to share your UCSC screenthoughts: We talk about saving static images and dynamic Browser sessions in a new blog post, and discuss some of the advantages and pitfalls of each. Read more.

29 June 2015 — GENCODE Genes Now Default Gene Set on the Human (GRCh38/hg38) Assembly: In a move towards standardizing on a common gene set within the bioinformatics community, UCSC has made the decision to adopt the GENCODE set of gene models as our default gene set on the human genome assembly. Read more.


  Conditions of Use

The Genome Browser software, sequence and annotation data are freely available for use with these conditions. A license is required for commercial use of the software. For assistance with questions or problems regarding the UCSC Genome Browser software, database, genome assemblies, or release cycles, click here.

Program-driven use of this software is limited to a maximum of one hit every 15 seconds and no more than 5,000 hits per day.

The UCSC Genome Browser was created by the Genome Bioinformatics Group of UC Santa Cruz. Software Copyright (c) The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.