Trifecta of Epigenetic Methylation Reveals a Long-Term Profile of Fetal Alcohol ExposureMay 6, 2016During this time of the year, it’s easy to get caught up in landscaping. Regardless of whether your landscaping is of the epigenetic or garden variety, it seems that either way we can all benefit from the wisdom of the old saying, “can’t see the forest for the trees”. Sometimes we just get so caught […]
Liquid Biopsies Reveal More than Sequence: The Epigenomics of Circulating Cell-Free DNAMay 6, 2016Every good captain knows that when your ship is in distress, you send out an SOS. Now, two new papers now leave us wondering if that tactic is borrowed from diseased tissues. Many diseases are characterized by cell death that releases circulating cell-free DNA (cfDNA) into the blood stream, which can now be analyzed in […]
Genes, Age, and Sex: Meet the Masters of Your MethylomeApril 21, 2016What do age, sex, environment, and genomics have in common? Well, aside from taking your mind to the wrong place, they also interact to shape your methylome. There’s no denying that genome and epigenome share many intimate associations (cue dim lighting). We’ve seen that epigenetic modification can precede mutation in cancer and evolution. Then, of […]
“There is another” – N6-mA Described as a New Form of DNA MethylationApril 9, 2016In one of modern cinema’s greatest movies, Jedi Master Yoda proclaims “No…there is another…”. He was talking about the presumed existence of only one Jedi, much as many mammalian biologists speak about 5-methylcytosine (5-mC) as being the only type of DNA methylation. In a ground breaking new study, Andrew Z. Xiao (Yale School of Medicine, […]
Redefining Cancer and Stem Cell Reprogramming: Epigenetic Modulators, Modifiers, and MediatorsApril 9, 2016Back in 2006, Andrew Feinberg & Co. brought forth a review that pioneered the concept of tumor progenitor genes, which are genes involved in stem cell reprogramming and cancer. These tumor progenitor genes are epigenetically deregulated at the earliest stage of cancer. The epigenetic variation occurs before mutations, can be seen in normal tissue surrounding […]