Game Of Genomes: Argonaute Threatens Reign Of CRISPRMay 20, 2016On the island of genome editing, CRISPR is king. Rapidly rising from obscurity, the CRISPR nuclease Cas9 handily dispatched its predecessors, the clumsy TALENs and zinc-finger nucleases. Since then, there has been some strife within the royal family, as better Cas9 proteins and its relatives fought for dominance. Despite this internal turmoil, the CRISPR dynasty […]
Promiscuous Bacteria Swap EpigeneticsMay 20, 2016Humans have good reasons to worry about our epigenetics. DNA decorations have big impacts on our gene expression and health, and we can inadvertently change them through such lifestyle choices as smoking, having parents, or getting old. We multicellular organisms can, at least, breathe easy that epigenetics aren’t contagious, but it turns out the same […]
Improving Regenerative Therapies with Naked Mole Rat iPSCsMay 20, 2016At first glance the naked mole rat (NMR), or Heterocephalus glaber to his Latin speaking friends, might not win you over with its looks, but it truly is an amazing animal. It’s obviously comfortable in its own skin, but it also thrives in harsh environments, lacks pain sensitivity in its skin, has low metabolic and […]
Age, Sequence, and DNA Methylation are Culprits of Lactose IntoleranceMay 20, 2016While fine wine and aged cheese are culinary delights, some of us who dine on dairy often start to go a bit ‘sour’ with age and develop lactose intolerance. Thankfully, to aid our mental digestion of such a foul fate, a collaborative effort between Toronto and Lithuania has shown the molecular mechanism of why we can […]
On Demand Demethylation with dCas9-TET1May 16, 2016Every researcher loves a good tool, and lately, it seems that CRISPR might be an even more modular tool than PCR. Attesting to the modularity of CRISPR/Cas9 is catalytically deactivated Cas9 (dCas9). dCas9 has the precision of Cas9, when combined with sgRNA, and can be fused to a modular effector domain that allows for extra […]