RNA-Directed DNA deMethylation: An Undiscovered Country in the RNA World?October 1, 2008Let’s face it: it’s an RNA world. In addition to RNA’s many genetic, catalytic, and structural roles, the discovery of small non-coding RNAs has unveiled an entire continent of epigenetic functions. Small RNAs act in processes such as mRNA destruction, translational inhibition, and DNA methylation. Now it appears that, at least in plants, small RNAs […]
How’s That For Gratitude: let-7 miRNA Targets Dicer’s Coding SequenceSeptember 30, 2008Recent evidence has shown that the let-7 miRNA bites the hand that feeds it . . . and in an unconventional way. By searching for short sequences conserved at the nucleotide level in the coding regions of 17 species, Hilary Coller and co-workers at Princeton University identified three let-7 target sites within the coding sequence […]
DNA Methylation Detection Goes Small TimeSeptember 28, 2008A sensitive new nanotechnology assay might represent a “quantum leap” in DNA methylation detection. The technique, which was developed by Vasudev Bailey and co-workers at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, uses quantum dots-fluorescent nanocrystals of a semiconductor material-to selectivel detect and quantify minute amounts of methylated DNA. As in methylation-specific PCR (MSP), sample […]
When Inhibitors Become Inhibited: miR 21 Becomes the PreySeptember 26, 2008It turns out that the small but mighty inhibitors of gene expression have an achilles heel and can be served up a taste of their own effect. Qihong Huang, Alexander Deiters, and colleagues at The Wistar Institute, North Carolina State University, and the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine discovered the first small molecule inhibitor […]
Roadmap EpigenomicsSeptember 25, 2008If you’re looking to sneak your grant in on the earliest date for the Epigenomics of Human Health and Disease (R01) grant, time is ticking. Applications are being accepted starting this Sunday. That’s the right, the date says September 28th. For those of you looking for additional information, the grant information is listed below, but […]
