Mir-143 Slacks Off, Leaving DNMT3A To Run Wild In Colorectal CancerAugust 6, 2009We like to think of epigenetics in terms of distinct areas like chromatin, DNA methylation and non-coding RNA (heck, we’ve even divided up the EpiGenie website that way), but more and more evidence is blurring the lines and showing us how these overlap. A recent publication from researchers at The Chinese University of Hong Kong […]
True Biomarker: DNA Methylation Steps up in Non-Invasive Prenatal DxAugust 5, 2009With the raging success of Twilight and True Blood, the masses of entertainment junkies out there have joined a well-established movement in the scientific community to make the most out of blood. There are a ton of potentially useful biomarkers floating around in our veins and the non-invasive sampling process has made blood a crowd […]
Clamping Down on Affinity ReagentsAugust 4, 2009U of Chicago protein engineer Shohei Koide knows there’s biology beyond the genome. Adding a methyl group onto a histone here, or an acetyl group onto one there, can change the way genes are expressed. There’s gotta be a reliable way of finding those postranslational mods in the first place, though, right? That’s why he […]
DNA Repeats; More Than Just Broken RecordsJuly 30, 2009Roughly half of the human genome is made up of repetitive DNA sequences, and yet their repetitive nature has made their study as difficult to decipher as James Brown lyrics on a scratched record. Recent evidence shows chromatin regulation of DNA repeats playing a role in gene regulation, genome integrity and chromosome maintenance, so scientists […]
Patience is Key to RNA Pol II Relationship with NucleosomeJuly 30, 2009here’s been lots of buzz about nucleosomes and RNAs lately. In fact, just last week EpiGenie reported that transcription initiation RNAs (tiRNAs) might be formed as RNA Pol II hits a nucleosome and backtracks. Nucleosomal post-transcriptional mods can cause RNA Polymerase II to pause or abort, while others can kick transcription into high gear. But […]