DNA Methylation Addiction Keeps Cancer Cells AliveJune 13, 2012Addictions are so strong that some people think they can’t live without them. For cancer cells, that’s actually the case. Cancer cells’ DNA methylation addiction actually keeps them alive, according to a group of California researchers. Altered DNA methylation is just one of many changes that go down when a cell becomes cancerous. The researchers […]
EZH2, PRC2 Get a Little Guidance From Intronic RNAs to Find Target GenesJune 7, 2012When touring an unfamiliar city or museum, it often helps to have a good guide if you want to see the best sights. Researchers in Spain now report that intronic RNAs, like a well trained herding dog, usher the repressive polycomb complex right to the specific chromatin regions they need to target in order to […]
Hi-C Gets the Low Down On Chromatin InteractionsJune 6, 2012The Hi-C you might remember from childhood was a delicious fruit punch drink with a mix of flavors. But as a recent Methods article points out, there’s a new Hi-C method on the scene. It’s not a juice beverage, but it is a tasty combination of techniques to analyze chromatin interactions that epigenetics researchers will […]
Epigenetics Book Reviews and Chapter SummariesJune 6, 2012Over the last year EpiGenie has reviewed a couple of the latest epigenetics textbooks for the site. As good citizens of the earth, we of course looked for ways to recycle the books (and the knowledge inside of them) once our writers were done with them. So, we sent our copies out to readers and […]
Covaris AFA: Shear Elegance for ChromatinJune 5, 2012Chromatin shearing is a key step in the ChIP workflow that can dramatically impact your experimental outcome, but so often the task of chromatin shearing is tackled with just brute force. Sub-optimal sonication or enzymatic approaches are like using a sledgehammer to chop fruits and vegetables. Fortunately, Covaris’ Focused-ultrasonicators use Adaptive Focused Acoustics (AFA) technology […]
