Sweet Success! DNA Hydroxymethylation Link Between Diabetes and Cancer Discovered!July 25, 2018Patients with diabetes do not get a sweet deal; the long-term complications associated with high blood sugar levels include cardiovascular disease, stroke, eye damage, kidney disease, and foot ulcers. Additionally, diabetic patients suffer from a higher risk of developing cancer, although quite how prolonged high blood sugar levels drives genetic and/or epigenetic alterations towards tumorigenesis […]
dCas9-Suntag-DNMT3A Outshines the Off-Target Effects of Direct dCas9-DNMT3A FusionsJune 25, 2018While even a technology with a future as bright as epigenome editing can have its cold day in the sun, the Suntag system has just cleared the clouds over a growing pain of epigenetic editing: the global off-target effects of dCas9-DNMT3A direct fusion constructs. To cure our epigenetic editing blues, the lab of Ryan Lister […]
Single-Cell Epigenetics of Human Embryos is No Longer too Cool for scCOOL-seq!June 24, 2018The single cells of the developing human embryo are kinda awesome, but maybe they’ve grown a tad arrogant, perhaps a little “too cool for school”? They always hang around alone or in small cliques of similar cells, while the hippest scientists have only recently developed techniques, such as scNOMe-seq and scNMT-seq, trendy enough to begin […]
Causation or Correlation? – First Evidence that DNA Methylation Alterations Cause AgingJune 17, 2018We all assume that water, good old H2O, has nothing to hide; however, dihydrogen monoxide has more than a few skeletons in its closet. For example, water is the leading cause of drowning while 100 percent of all people exposed to water will eventually die! It is easy to chalk up the second of these […]
Eyesight from the Blind: DNA Methylation Causes Cavefish Eye DegenerationJune 11, 2018While we are no strangers to the role of epigenetics in environmental adaption, the lab of Brant Weinstein at the National Institute of Health (Maryland, USA) has brought forth an example of environmental adaption so extreme that it provides profound insight into eye degeneration and blindness. The talented team chose to examine the Mexican tetra […]
