5hmC: a Helping Hand in Drug AddictionMarch 23, 2015While there’s no doubting that one month of continuous cocaine exposure is going to have an effect on the brain, it seems that some of the molecular culprits behind the response and long-term effects are 5hmC and the TET protein family. An international research team studying addiction via cocaine show that repeat exposure downregulates the TET machinery in the brain’s reward centre, the nucleus […]
Novel Primate- and Tissue Specific miRNAs with Dr Isidore RigoutsosMarch 17, 2015In this interview Dr Isidore Rigoutsos discusses his recent paper ‘Analysis of 13 cell types reveals evidence for the expression of numerous novel primate- and tissue-specific microRNAs‘ published in PNAS, February 2015. This paper shows the presence of many more miRNAs than previously thought and uncovers that the majority of these are in fact, cell-type […]
Our Favorite Findings from the Epigenomic RoadmapMarch 10, 2015For those of you with a keen eye, you’ll have already noticed the mass of Epigenomic Roadmap Studies published in Nature in February. In order to help you navigate this mountain of results we’ve highlighted some of our favorite findings from this collection of papers. Here’s our Top Five Findings: Enhancer-like Elements Take Center Stage in […]
Zymo Research 5-mC and Quest™ 5-hmC ELISAs Take DNA Methylation Screens GlobalMarch 10, 2015The concept of ‘Acting Locally’ has struck a chord with many folks these days on topics ranging from groceries to government, which makes it easy to forget the last part of that meme: which is to also ‘Think Globally’. The R&D team from Zymo Research has kept that bigger picture in mind, and developed their […]
New Rising STARs of Transcriptional ActivationMarch 9, 2015If you can pronounce CRISPR, you know RNA-mediated gene control has been a rising star in synthetic biology. In principle, RNA regulation allows gene circuits to have many more independent control switches than traditional protein transcription factors. CRISPR has turned out to be a great system for RNA-guided gene repression, but it hasn’t been as […]
