Can’t Remember What’s Stressing You Out? Blame Histone AcetylationSeptember 2, 2016We can all relate to the side effects of severe stress in one way or the other. Severe stress affects us in many ways and contributes immensely to many pathological issues. One side effect of stress is spatial memory impairment. Whereas non-epigenetic basis of how stress impacts our spatial memory has been documented, no such […]
The Sunnyside of Precision DNA Demethylation by dCas9-TET1September 2, 2016On its quests to edit the epigenome like no biotechnology ever has, our deactivated Cas9 (dCas9) hero has come across many powerful effectors. When seeking out precision DNA demethylation, it has previously seen a multi TET1 approach. This makes use of both a dCas9 and TET1 catalytic domain fusion (dCas9-TET1) and also sgRNA 2.0 to […]
Tuning Chromatin Microenvironments with Epigenome EditingAugust 27, 2016Ensuring the sustainability of our environment is a noble goal, and when it comes to the chromatin microenvironments epigenome editing is no exception. While we’ve seen a range of epigenome editing applications, the long-term (mitotically stable) nature of these modifications has remained a challenge. In 2002, epigenome editing demonstrated that when it comes to the […]
Dendrimer-RNA Nanoparticles Go For Vaccination GoldAugust 14, 2016There is perhaps no tougher event in the immunity games than the vaccination all-around. Live-attenuated vaccines score high on efficacy, but they lack both speed (new formulations take months to produce) and endurance (they have short shelf lives). In addition, they have to work hard to avoid losing points on safety. Purified antigen vaccines have […]
Daisy Drive: The Safer, Prettier Gene DriveAugust 14, 2016Gene drives, which could theoretically engineer entire species, are a much-ballyhooed but little tested application for CRISPR-based genetic engineering. Gene drives would bias inheritance in sexual reproduction, with drive alleles passing themselves on nearly 100% of the time, instead of the 50% for normal Mendelian inheritance. Including a CRISPR effector like Cas9, a guide RNA, […]