Magnetogenetics Goes Deep Into the BrainMarch 19, 2016The ability to control things with magnetic fields is no longer restricted to the mischief of comic book villains. Using synthetic biology to figure out just what neurons do has always been a tricky task, because it has been limited by requiring invasive surgery (optogenetics) or slow on-off kinetics (drugs). But now magnetogenetics emerges as […]
Peeping in on Dynamic All-or-None Single-Cell Chromatin RepressionMarch 6, 2016Ever dream of knowing the single-cell details of chromatin regulators in real-time only to awake trapped in the static world of heterogenous cell populations? Well, dream no longer because thanks to the efforts of the Elowitz laboratory at Caltech researchers now have the ability to see just how some of our favorite epigenetic repressors (HDAC4, KRAB, DNMT3B […]
Elevate Your Epigenetics Game with DeepBlue and epiGbsMarch 2, 2016When it comes time to tackle the big data of the epigenome, tools and databases are your best friend. However, in today’s modern world, there’s more than one way to crack the epigenome and now two new tools serve up some interesting perspectives on the use of reference sequence. Going Deep into Databases Felipe Albrecht […]
LEXY: Optogenetic Nuclear Export for Proteins Looking to Go PlacesMarch 2, 2016Optogenetics is one of the flashier techniques of the past decade. Instead of slow chemical or blunt physical interventions, optogenetics controls events inside cells with the timing and precision of a beam of light. Optogenetic success stories thus far include light-activated neuron firing, heart beating, organelle positioning, protein dimerization, membrane localization, gene editing, and import […]
Aspirin and lncRNA Team Up on TumorsMarch 1, 2016Over 100 years ago, the founder of chemotherapy, Paul Ehrlich, coined the term “magic bullet” to describe an ideal therapeutic agent used to target disease, such as cancer. Since then, we have assessed many different anti-tumorigenic compounds, although we are only beginning to understand just how some of these bullets hit their target. This understanding, […]
