Automating Pluripotent Stem Cell Culture – The Rise of the Robots?December 4, 2015They help cook dinner, clean the dishes, and sweep up afterward. They also build our cars, help us explore space, and now they may be on the verge of aiding in highly complex tasks in the laboratory. In particular, robot-based automation is being explored as a means to enhance efficiency in laboratories studying pluripotent stem […]
Epigenetic Diversity Teams Up with Genetics to Explain Complex PhenotypesDecember 4, 2015If epigenetics has taught us anything, it’s that genes are not our destiny. Even though aberrant patterns of epigenetic marks have been caught at the scene of the crime in many disease states, we know relatively little about their natural variation and how this influences human health. That may be about to change however with […]
DNA Methylation and SNPs Interact to Shape Neurodevelopment and Schizophrenia RiskDecember 4, 2015While epigenetic marks drive traits on their own, their complex influence on phenotype can also be caught in an intimate tango with underlying sequence. One way to characterize this association is by studying DNA methylation quantitative trait loci (mQTLs), which are SNPs in the genome that influence DNA methylation. Previously, the Lab of Jonathan Mill […]
Enhancers Shape the Fetal Landscape of Dynamic Developmental DNA MethylationNovember 29, 2015Waddington’s epigenetic landscape is a classic metaphor for the role of epigenomics in development. In it, a cell becomes increasingly committed to a certain developmental trajectory as it acquires marks that poise it for later development. Massive efforts have been undertaken to chart this unexplored landscape and discover the buried treasures of development. Much has […]
CRISPR-Enhanced Enhancer MappingNovember 29, 2015Enhancers are hugely important regulatory regions of DNA that control gene expression. New techniques are telling us a lot about enhancer structure and function, but the study of enhancers could still use some enhancement. Enhancers are currently defined by what they look like (local DNA methylation, histone modifications, and chromatin availability) or by pulling them […]
