miR-101: RNA Guardian Of The Genome?March 9, 2009MicroRNA-101 (miR-101) is rapidly earning a place in the “Who’s Who” of tumor suppressor genes. In November, we told you how The Little RNA that Could wallops prostate cancer by repressing the histone methyltransferase EZH2. Now researchers at the University of Southern California have shown that miR-101 plays a similar role in the suppression of […]
Two Epigenetic Drugs Join Forces with Cisplatin to Knock Out CancerMarch 9, 2009Just when it seems that scientists are winning the fight against cancer, tumors hit below the belt by developing resistance to chemotherapies. But researchers at the University of Glasgow and TopoTarget Prolifix Ltd. have shown that delivering a 1-2 punch of epigenetic drugs could allow the chemotherapeutic agent cisplatin to knock out resistant tumors. Cisplatin, […]
ESC Pluripotency Players Take To RESTMarch 2, 2009The lab gloves came off in a recent Nature exchange on the putative role of the transcriptional repressor, REST, in embryonic stem cell pluripotency. In the left corner, Singh and colleagues, conducting experiments out of MD Anderson in the Lone Star State, published data in Nature back in May, 2008 indicating that REST may control […]
Nanopore Sequencing the 5th BaseMarch 2, 2009For the pipette-jockeys out there who have been toiling away with tedious bisulfite sequencing runs, MS-PCR, or Me-DIP protocols: Hang in there! It looks like help might soon be on the way. A group of Oxford researchers just published a method that uses nanopore technology to sequence single molecules of DNA, including 5-methylcytosine, all without […]
Integrated Epigenetic Profiling in Primary Human CellsFebruary 25, 2009The Costello Lab at UCSF is another of the four Reference Epigenome Mapping Centers (REMCs, not to be confused with REM although I’m sure Michael Stipe would be very proud of the work going on at the REMCs). According to Dr. Joseph Costello, his lab will be rolling up their sleeves with scientists at UC […]