Behind the Scenes Histone and DNA Methylation Regulation Tricks RevealedNovember 30, 2010Diehard fans cinema aren’t satisfied by just watching a movie; they want to know everything about it, including how those amazing special effects are pulled off. In much the same way, scientists at the University of Bergen in Norway noticed extensive gene expression reprogramming in their experiments with pre-cancerous prostate cells and wanted to get […]
Homocysteine Gives Sneak-Peak into Low Birth WeightsNovember 19, 2010Were you a tiny tot or a tubby toddler? If so, your mom’s folic acid intake could be to blame. As those of us in the U.S. prepare to indulge in a Thanksgiving Day gorge-fest, here’s more proof that we are what our mothers ate. A recent study by William Farrell and colleagues in the […]
miR-23a,27a,24-2 Cluster is Bad to the BoneNovember 19, 2010We’re not calling the miRNA 23a,27a,24-2 cluster a bunch of biological bad-guys, but if you’re a progenitor cell hoping to one day become an osteoblast, then they aren’t exactly your best friends. A new study reveals that the miRNA 23a,27a,24-2 cluster is at the center of a regulatory network that controls osteoblast differentiation. The new […]
DNA Methylation Affinity Methods Come With Some BaggageNovember 19, 2010If you sometimes wonder about the quality of data coming from today’s popular affinity-based DNA methylation analysis methods, you‘re not alone. In fact, researchers at Garvan Institute of Medical Research in Sydney Australia decided to do something about it by studying the techniques and learning that methylated DNA immunoprecipitation (MeDIP) and methyl-CpG binding domain-based capture […]
Epimutation: The New Risk Factor on the BRCA1 BlockNovember 18, 2010BRCA1, (breast cancer susceptibility gene 1), is involved in repairing damaged DNA or destroying cells when the DNA is beyond repair. Women with mutations in the BRCA1 gene have a predisposition to developing breast and ovarian cancer. OK, that wasn’t necessarily a newsflash, but wait… EpiGenie reader, Alexander Dobrovic and his team at the Peter […]