Tumor Suppressor Methylation is Cause for Cancer ConcernMay 2, 2011Aberrant DNA methylation causes cancer. Wait, didn’t we know this already? Well, not exactly. Association and causation are two very different things. For instance, being smart may be associated with wearing glasses, but the actual cause is a desire to not bump into everything. In order to determine whether aberrant DNA methylation at particular loci […]
Histone Mods? There’s an App for ThatApril 29, 2011Although they’re better known for robust histone “abs”, the folks up at Millipore have now demonstrated that they’re not too shabby at cranking out solid histone “apps” as well. The team just released an iPad® app that’s a really slick, interactive resource for histone modifications available, absolutely free in iTunes. Why waste time on Angry […]
Fire Up Your Methylation Analysis With QIAGEN’s PyroMark CpG AssaysApril 26, 2011Fast, inexpensive, and accurate, pyrosequencing has become a go-to method for many researchers looking for quantitative methylation data. Designing methylation assays using primers for bisulfite converted DNA can be tricky though, and dealing with assay optimization is no small feat either. Fortunately those worries go up in smoke with QIAGEN’s new PyroMark CpG Assays. Custom […]
Sperm Nucleosome Retention is All Off BaseApril 19, 2011There are lots of ways sperm cells are different from other cell types, but a new PLoS Genetics paper focused on one way in particular, chromatin structure, in order to find out what those differences mean and where they come from.In most cells, DNA is packaged up into nucleosomes, but in sperm, nucleosomes are only […]
OneStep For DNAm qPCR, One Giant Leap For DNAm AnalysisApril 19, 2011In the past, the route to locus-specific methylation detection resembled more of a brutal molecular biology pentathlon than a microfuge tube. If you’re into that kind of abuse, that’s cool, but you probably won’t be interested in Zymo’s new OneStep qMethyl™ Kit. This slick system closes the lid on the old school tool set and […]