Key Factors that Mend Broken HeartsSeptember 30, 2015Jimmy Ruffin once asked, “What becomes of the broken hearted?” and the answer is normally found on a barstool or at the bottom of an ice cream tub. But for those suffering from the much more visceral consequences of a heart attack, the therapeutic avenues down which they can travel are more limited and less […]
Cpf1 Takes CRISPR Bigger by Going SmallerSeptember 29, 2015Move over Cas9; here comes yet another CRISPR-associated player. The CRISPR pioneers in the lab of Feng Zhang at MIT continue to discover the power of CRISPR , bringing us a fancy new part for genome editing. Recently, they changed things up with a slimmer Cas9 from Staphylococcus pyogenes (spCas9) but now it seems they’ve found […]
Sorting the Old from the New – Cellular Barriers Keeps Stem Cells YoungSeptember 29, 2015Alongside smartphones, coffee shops, and bars, we all also need properly functioning stem cells to survive and prosper. Indeed, the stem cell theory of aging posits that the malfunctioning of stem cells in our later years, and not all that caffeine and alcohol, is the major cause of human aging. So how do we keep […]
Microfluidic ChIP Makes a Few Cells Go a Long WaySeptember 11, 2015Chromatin immunoprecipitation (or ChIP) is a handy technique to study epigenetic profiles, but only if you have enough cells. The main problem with ChIP is that it can be a “greedy” technique that uses large numbers of cells while giving back the bare minimum of DNA as a result. This is problematic for the study of genome-wide […]
Microlasers Hold Big Promise for Next Generation Cellular AnalysisSeptember 11, 2015Recent work by Seok Hyun Yun and Matjaž Humar has shown us that laser shows aren’t just for Pink Floyd fans. These crafty researchers incorporated specific structures into individual cells, turning them into self-contained “microlasers”. In its simplest form, laser (or light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation) technology uses an energy source to amplify photons bouncing between reflective […]
