miRNA Retention and EnhancementJuly 21, 2008miRNAs, the small but mighty inhibitors of complementary mRNA sequences, might be accused of having a Napoleon complex, but they don’t start out life itty-bitty—they are transcribed as long primary miRNAs (pri-miRNAs). Cleavage by the RNase III-like enzyme Drosha in the nucleus releases a ~70-nt stem-loop structure (pre-mRNA), which is further processed by Dicer in […]
Mom, Methylation, and ObesityJuly 15, 2008Let the blame game begin. In addition to our lifestyle habits, our mothers could have something to do with those stubborn pounds that dont seem to shed. An interesting obesity studying involving DNA methylation has provided new evidence suggesting that obese moms give birth to kids who have a propensity to become even more obese. […]
Non-Invasive DNA Methylation Assay for Colorectal Cancer Now Available from LabCorpJuly 14, 2008Not even a month after announcing a reagent supply agreement with OncoMethylome Sciences, LabCorp has announced the commercial availability of the Methylation-Specific PCR Assay for monitoring the methylation status of Vimentin DNA. Marketed as ColoSure(TM) by LabCorp, the MSP Assay is being positioned for assessing any stage colorectal cancer in asymptomatic average risk patients who […]
Webserver for Aligning Non-Coding RNA Structure-WARJuly 13, 2008Finally a WAR with no conflict. We have to give a big electronic high five to the group from the University of Copenhagen who just introduced a very helpful web utility: WAR-Webserver for aligning structural RNAs is a very handy site that allows you to use the best algorithms for aligning and predicting the consensus […]
ChIPs and MeDIP: ChIP Antibody Selection TipsJuly 9, 2008Chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) remains a powerful method to characterize in vivo binding of DNA hugging proteins like histones and transcription factors and more recently has been used effectively for DNA methylation studies. The ChIP technique has been around since the days of big hair and “Miami Vice,” so we won’t review it here much, but […]
