83b0f7d4e2913e2f42f2f822c8e933872591f36d
gperez2
  Wed Feb 18 15:27:21 2026 -0800
Announcing the JASPAR 2026 tracks, refs #36264

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 <p>You can sign-up to get these announcements via our 
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 email list. We send around one short announcement email every two weeks.</p>
 
 <p>Smaller software changes are not announced here.  A summary of the three-weekly release changes can be 
 found <a target=_blank href="https://genecats.gi.ucsc.edu/builds/versions.html">here</a>. 
 For the full list of our daily code changes head to our <a
 href="https://github.com/ucscGenomeBrowser/kent/commits/master"
 target=_blank>GitHub page</a>. Lastly, see our <a href="credits.html" target="_blank">
 credits page</a> for acknowledgments of the data we host.</p>
 
 <!-- ============= 2025 archived news ============= -->
 <a name="2026"></a>
 
+<a name="021826"></a>
+<h2>Feb. 18, 2026 &nbsp;&nbsp; JASPAR 2026 tracks for 8 assemblies</h2>
+<p>
+We are happy to announce the release of the JASPAR 2026 tracks for
+<a href="/cgi-bin/hgTrackUi?db=hg38&g=jaspar" target="_blank">hg38</a>,
+<a href="/cgi-bin/hgTrackUi?db=mm39&g=jaspar" target="_blank">mm39</a>,
+<a href="/cgi-bin/hgTrackUi?db=danRer11&g=jaspar" target="_blank">danRer11</a>,
+<a href="/cgi-bin/hgTrackUi?db=galGal6&g=jaspar" target="_blank">galGal6</a>,
+<a href="/cgi-bin/hgTrackUi?db=dm6&g=jaspar" target="_blank">dm6</a>,
+<a href="/cgi-bin/hgTrackUi?db=ce11&g=jaspar" target="_blank">ce11</a>,
+<a href="/cgi-bin/hgTrackUi?db=ci3&g=jaspar" target="_blank">ci3</a>, and
+<a href="/cgi-bin/hgTrackUi?db=ci3&g=jaspar" target="_blank">sacCer3</a>.
+These tracks represent genome-wide predicted binding sites for transcription factors with binding
+profiles in the
+<a href="https://jaspar.elixir.no/about/" target="_blank">JASPAR CORE collection</a>.
+JASPAR is a regularly maintained open-access database that stores manually curated transcription
+factor (TF) binding profiles as position frequency matrices (PFMs).
+</p>
+<p>
+The JASPAR 2026 update expanded the JASPAR CORE collection by 12% (306 added or upgraded profiles),
+culminating in a set of 2,633 non-redundant TF binding profiles. Genome sequences were scanned with
+JASPAR 2026 CORE TF binding profiles for each taxon independently using PWMScan. For more
+information, see the <a href="/cgi-bin/hgTrackUi?db=hg38&g=jaspar#TRACK_HTML" 
+target="_blank">track description page</a>. 
+</p>
+<p>
+The JASPAR database is a joint effort among several labs (please see the latest
+<a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/nar/gkaf1209" target="_blank">JASPAR paper</a>). Binding site
+predictions and UCSC tracks were computed by the 
+<a href="https://mathelierlab.com/" target="_blank">CBGR team</a> at NCMBM using code developed at
+the Wasserman Lab. We would like to thank Luis Nassar and Gerardo Perez for their efforts on this
+release.
+</p>
+
 <a name="020926"></a>
 <h2>Feb. 09, 2026 &nbsp;&nbsp; Phased variants track for human (hg38 and hg19)</h2>
 <p>
 We are pleased to announce the release of the Phased Variants container track for
 <a href="/cgi-bin/hgTrackUi?db=hg38&position=default&g=phasedVars">hg38/GRCh38</a>
 and <a href="/cgi-bin/hgTrackUi?db=hg19&position=default&g=phasedVars">hg19/GRCh19</a>.
 This new track brings together
 phased individual-level genotype data from four projects: Human Diversity Genome Project,
 Simons Genome Diversity Project, gnomad's HGDP+1000 Genomes callset, and the Mexico Biobank.
 </p>
 
 <p>
 The Phased Variants track includes the following
 subtracks:
 </p>