Oh, the Horror! Commercial RTs Create False-Positive ncRNA DetectionSeptember 16, 2011With Halloween coming soon, we usually expect some visits from goblins, ghosts, and other creepy creatures who aren’t really what they seem. Now, researchers warn that using commercial reverse transcriptase (RT) might give you another sort of ghastly scareāyou might think youāre detecting antisense non-coding RNA (ncRNA) when it isn’t even there. With so much […]
Epigenetic Instability Passes DNA Methylation Variation on to HeirsSeptember 15, 2011There are loads of things weād hope to inherit from our parents, like intelligence, good looks or maybe even the family fortune, but weāre pretty sure altered DNA methylation wouldnāt make the list. No use worrying about that, though, since we canāt do much about itā¦and how often does that really happen anyway? A group […]
Podbat Let’s You Fly Through Epigenomic AnalysisSeptember 14, 2011How much would you pay to be able to analyze epigenomic data sets for multiple modifications, from various sources and different experiment types simultaneously? Before you answer, check out this new software tool, Podbat (Positioning database and analysis tool) that lets you do all of that and moreā¦for free! When we first heard the name, […]
DNA Methylation Not So Identical in Schizophrenic TwinsSeptember 14, 2011Monozygotic (MZ), or identical, twins may seem like exact carbon copies of each other, but recent work has shown that epigenetic variation between them is common, even though they share an identical genome. Sometimes these small but significant epigenetic differences are suspected to lead to very different outcomes when it comes to psychiatric disorders like […]
Imprinted Brain Theory with Dr Christopher BadcockSeptember 13, 2011Dr. Christopher Badcock explains key epigenetic concepts of the Imprinted Brain theory and how it might change the way we think about mental disorders. This short take was shot during a break at Keystone Symposia’s meeting on Environmental Epigenomics and Disease Susceptibility held in March 2011 in Asheville, North Carolina. Imprinted Brain Theory Well, […]