When Inhibitors Become Inhibited: miR 21 Becomes the PreySeptember 26, 2008It turns out that the small but mighty inhibitors of gene expression have an achilles heel and can be served up a taste of their own effect. Qihong Huang, Alexander Deiters, and colleagues at The Wistar Institute, North Carolina State University, and the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine discovered the first small molecule inhibitor […]
Roadmap EpigenomicsSeptember 25, 2008If you’re looking to sneak your grant in on the earliest date for the Epigenomics of Human Health and Disease (R01) grant, time is ticking. Applications are being accepted starting this Sunday. That’s the right, the date says September 28th. For those of you looking for additional information, the grant information is listed below, but […]
Allele-Specific Modifications: A Tale of Two EpigenomesSeptember 24, 2008It was the best of times, it was the worst of times-one parental allele was transcribing like gangbusters and the other was permanently stalled. Each of us carries a set of genetically distinct chromosomes from mom and dad, and increasing evidence indicates that the two parental genomes also have widespread epigenetic differences. But how can […]
Structural Effects of Histone MethylationSeptember 24, 2008The methylation of histones at specific sites has been linked to both transcriptionally active and repressive chromatin. However, the structural basis for these effects has been difficult to study because homogeneous populations of methylated histones were not available for x-ray crystallography. This situation changed recently with the development of a method to introduce modifications such […]
miRNAs: The New Addition to the Biomarker BuffetSeptember 16, 2008Human blood serum is cellular buffet of different biological molecules sampled continuously from every tissue of the body. So it’s not surprising that many researchers have attempted to identify biomarkers in serum that reflect a particular physiological or disease state. Most of these potential biomarkers are proteins (important-yes, exciting-not really), but Zvi Bentwich, Ayelet Chajut, […]
