From Neuron to Germline: Inheritance by Mobile RNAsFebruary 4, 2015We’ve got transgenerational epigenetic inheritance on the mind and now strangely enough it seems that the mind also causes transgenerational epigenetic inheritance?! Researchers have just shown the strangest case of inheritance yet: soma to germline. A talented team from the University of Maryland have been tracing double stranded RNA (dsRNA) in C. elegans and have made some interesting observations […]
Neurodevelopment and Methylomic Trajectories: Sex and DiseaseFebruary 4, 2015If variety is the spice to life than the brain must be the spiciest organ of them all, with DNA methylation as its rooster sauce (which comes with its own embedded sodium bisuflite conversion kit). By studying the delicious layers of DNA methylation variation we’ve seen strange parental expression biases, methylation differences between discordant twins, and how the dynamics […]
Cellular Transdifferentiation: Meet the 21st Century AlchemistsFebruary 3, 2015For centuries, some of the world’s leading scholars worked endlessly with one objective, to turn ordinary metals into gold. Now, scientists of the 21st century are trying their hand at another type of alchemy, turning one cell type into another. This process, known as ‘transdifferentiation’ or ‘direct reprogramming’ can create a potentially limitless source of […]
Reprogramming Lottery is Epigenetically RiggedFebruary 3, 2015If epigenetics has taught us anything, it is that not all genetically identical beings are created equal. A team of stem-cell researchers from Tel Aviv University led by Iftach Nachman now apply this principle to populations of cells undergoing reprogramming to induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) and show that some cells have a higher chance of […]
Reinventing Reprogramming: Bringing Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell Technology to the Masses?February 3, 2015“We can rebuild him. We have the technology. We can make him better than he was. Better, stronger, faster”. They did it for Steve Austin in The Six Million Dollar Man, and now researchers from the laboratory of Joseph C. Wu (Stanford) have applied the same thinking to the technology behind human induced pluripotent stem […]