Intergenerational Epigenetic Effects of Dad’s DietJanuary 23, 2015The effect of epigenetic marks across generations has helped bring epigenetics to the public eye like never before. The health implications are enormous and so is the contribution to basic science, particularly evolution. However, one important distinction is whether it is a true form of molecular inheritance, known as transgenerational epigenetic inheritance, or the shared effect […]
Active Demethylation: TET Enzymes, 5hmC, and CompanyJanuary 20, 20155hmC was originally discovered way back in the 50’s in bacteriophages and was first observed in mammals in the 70’s, but research into this was set back when these studies failed to replicate. And going back to the future, in 2009 two independent research groups, publishing on the same pages in science, found that this “unknown […]
Why Drugs in Dad Can Affect Your EpigenomeJanuary 15, 2015Some people aren’t always happy about what gets passed on from their parents. It’s great to have your Dad’s strong cheekbones but not so great to have his lactose intolerance. It turns out we may acquire even more from our fathers than we ever thought during our germ cell years. A new study from Elizabeth Thomas’s lab […]
Illuminating the Function of Stem Cell Therapy for Parkinson’s DiseaseJanuary 15, 2015Red light means stop and green light means go? Apparently not for a few bright researchers who have recently used a novel technique to shed light on how cell replacement therapy for Parkinson’s Disease (PD) functions. Studies suggest that therapeutic success requires the functional integration of grafted dopamine releasing (DA) neurons, but this has actually been […]
Passive Demethylation Drives DevelopmentJanuary 15, 2015Ever taken one of those online personality tests, such as those that tell you if you’ve got a passive or active personality? Well researchers at Stanford set out to perform such a test, not on themselves, but to uncover the ‘personality’ of demethylation during development. DNA can be demethylated actively through the TET enzyme family, or passively during DNA […]
