Nucleosome Positions Are Cloudy With Chance of StabilityNovember 5, 2010It’s all about perspective. Like a funhouse mirror that makes you look fat or skinny depending on how it’s curved, it seems there’s some controversy on the subject of nucleosome positioning based on how results get interpreted. So, are nucleosomes stable or do they move around? In this contributed piece, Istvan Ladunga from the University […]
Prions Take Epigenetics to the ExtremeOctober 28, 2010Yeah, we know that somewhere between the X-games and base-jumping light beer ads, the term “Extreme” got a little played out. But, in their Perspective piece in Science, Randal Halfmann and Susan Lindquist make the case that certain proteins with unique folding properties, called prions, deserve the “extreme” label. Prions are proteins that are stably […]
Pardon the Epigenetic DisruptionOctober 28, 2010One of the great things about stem cells is how they seem to do just about anything. These days, stem cells have more Apps than an iPad, and in the new issue of Science we find one more: using stem cells to screen for “epigenetic disruptors”. The proposed idea is to use the built-in developmental […]
That’s Sweet: Tracking Down 5-hmC with SugarOctober 26, 2010To say researchers have been pretty amped about 5-Hydroxymethylcytosine (5-hmC) this last year would be an understatement. Is this 6th base for real, or is it some kind of intermediate of it’s more abundant cousin 5-mC? So far its low key presence has been detected in embryonic stem cells, brain, and other organs but there […]
Take a Look: NCBI Epigenomics Sample BrowserOctober 26, 2010Our friends at the NCBI clued us in to one of their newest free tools that should prove to be a big help to anyone wanting to sort through next-gen sequencing data from epigenomic studies. NCBI’s new Sample Browser, located on its Epigenomics page, lets users search, access and analyze sequencing data from various publicly […]
