Wanted: Serially-Offending Epigenetic Enzymes Implicated In CancerAugust 4, 2015Epigenetic enzymes are among the prime suspects in the identity parade of genes responsible for the deregulation of the genome in cancer. But are the same epigenetic enzymes always found at the scene of the crime? A new analysis from a team of international researchers led by Andrew Teschendorff identifies three epigenetic enzymes that can […]
DNA Methylation Helps T Cells with their Career PathAugust 3, 2015In one of the lower valleys of Waddington’s epigenetic landscape, T cells are confronted with a fatal decision: Become a CD4+ helper T cell and assist your brethren in fighting evil invaders or turn into a CD8+ cytotoxic T cell and do the dirty work. But as in all good fantasy novels, our heroes first […]
Webinar: Multiplex Profiling of Epigenetic Modifications – Measuring Assay Specific & Off-target Effects in the Same SampleJuly 29, 2015Abstract: A variety of epigenetic modifications including post-translational modifications (PTMs) on histone tails regulate gene expression and have profound effects on cell signaling and human disease. N-terminal histone tails can have a variety of modifications, such as phosphorylation, methylation and acetylation at specific amino acid residues which are conserved throughout eukaryotes and function by altering chromatin […]
Exploiting Nucleotide Recycling to Kill CancerJuly 28, 2015Have you ever had a doubt about what exactly you can recycle? The cell is faced with the same problem when it encounters epigenetic nucleosides. It does not really know if they can be recycled as they are or discarded. New research by the team of Skirmantas Kriaucionis shows that although such nucleotides are normally […]
Expanding the Genetic Code with Synthetic BasesJuly 27, 2015 Life on Earth only uses 4 DNA bases (ACGT), but in principle, there’s no good reason why we couldn’t use more. Heeding the call of “this might be possible but nature hasn’t done it yet I wonder why not?”, synthetic biologists have been tinkering with synthetic bases to see if an expanded DNA alphabet […]