Single Cell Methylation Analysis: Brought to You by RMSAJanuary 30, 2011As DNA methylation keeps popping up in the discussion of more and more diseases, it’s clear that current analysis techniques can only give us part of the big picture. To help focus on other parts of that picture, a new method has been devised that zooms in on the methylation status of single cells. The […]
Ta-da! Blood Cells Transform into iPSCsJanuary 20, 2011Turning a cell into an induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) is tricky. It turns out that blood cells have an edge—they already epigenetically resemble iPSCs. When U.S. and Chinese researchers poked around the DNA of human CD34+ cells from umbilical cord blood and adult blood, they found that the promoters’ methylation patterns looked a heck […]
ChIP in a Box: Success with Abcam’s ChIP Kit and Primer SetsJanuary 19, 2011Sometimes thinking inside the box isn’t such a bad thing. Especially if that box contains the key ingredients to successful ChIP experiments like Abcam’s ChIP Kit. Abcam may be more known for its diverse antibody collection, but they also make kits to make those antibodies hum in applications like ChIP. Abcam’s ChIP Kit contains most of […]
KDM6B: H3K27me3 Demethylase Gone BadJanuary 19, 2011KDM6B is just your average histone demethylase that usually goes about its business stripping methyl marks from H3K27me3 without any drama. That is, until it gets a little out of control and starts demethylating genes associated with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma (HL). Scientists at the University of Birmingham, UK were looking into the role of H3K27 demethylation […]
Stem Cells Can’t Hold Their LiquorJanuary 17, 2011Growing up, you always hear that drinking alcohol kills brain cells. According to a new report (not to mention a slow recovery from the EpiGenie New Year’s Eve Bash) there’s definitely some truth to that old adage. Researchers at Indiana University looked at alcohol’s effect on neural stem cells (NSCs) during development by running NSC […]
