Mecp2, miR-212 Keep Cocaine Addiction In CheckAugust 18, 2010Anyone who’s ever seen an episode of Celebrity Rehab knows that addiction is a very complicated issue, and as scientists recently found out, even the molecular basis of addiction is no simple matter. A group led by Paul Kenny at Scripps Florida studied cocaine use in rats that were allowed to dose themselves with the […]
5-Hydroxymethylcytosine Gets SensitiveAugust 17, 2010One of the great things about science is that whenever a new problem presents itself, there are always some members of the community who set out to find innovative solutions. In this case, it’s been a bear to detect and quantify 5-hydroxymethylcytosine (5-hmC) but some cagey researchers at the Ludwig Maximilians University (LMU) in Munich, […]
Protein Methylation: The Other Epigenetic RegulatorAugust 13, 2010While epigenetic mechanisms like DNA methylation and chromatin remodeling get most of the attention, more is being learned everyday about other important mechanisms that are just now starting to get their share of the limelight. In this article contributed by John Aletta at CH3 Biosystems, he explains how protein arginine methylation is also a key […]
Expert Insight: 5-hmC Analysis MethodsAugust 5, 2010Last year’s discovery of 5-hydroxymethylcytosine (5-hmC) caused some epigenetics researchers to suffer a crisis of confidence, provoking many hours of soul-searching questions such as “are my methylation data really accurate?” and “what if what I thought was gene silencing is really activation?” Although current estimates place 5-hmC levels at only a fraction of the 5-mC […]
Uncovering 5hmC’s Link to Stem Cell Self-RenewalAugust 3, 2010The search is on to figure out a role for the recently discovered 5-hydroxymethylcytosine (5hmC) base. While it’s still up in the air if 5hmC will play a main character or just be cast as an extra , this new study in Nature ties the mysterious modification to a demethylation pathway, regulated by Tet proteins, […]
