Foretelling Future Hippocampal Transcription and Disease Risk with Early DNA Methylation ProfilesOctober 27, 2019Will it rain tomorrow? Will I ever win the lottery? Will our new paper finally be accepted!? Unfortunately, we have yet to come up with a sturdy means to predict our fates far in the future; however, new research by Hadad and colleagues now suggests that DNA methylation profiles in young cells accurately foretell changes […]
Studying TAD Boundary Issues Through Epigenome Editing of CTCF MotifsOctober 19, 2019So, your therapist says you have boundary issues? Well you’re not alone; CTCF is known to play a critical role in setting the boundaries of topologically associating domains (TADs), but there’s been no therapist to uncover their definitive impact. Thankfully, new research from the lab of Bradley Bernstein at the Harvard Medical School (Boston, USA) […]
It’s a Bear, It’s a Pig, it’s a Tardigrade! Superhero Dsup Protein Protects Chromatin from HarmOctober 19, 2019Some superheroes wear flashy costumes and capes that you can’t help but notice, but then there’s the unassuming tardigrade; the microscopic wonder beast with the astounding ability to survive extreme temperatures, radiation, and the vacuum of space! With multiple secret identities, including “water bear” and “moss piglet”, the discrete invertebrate has kept the key to […]
Casilio-ME Engineers dCas9-Demethylation to the Next Gene Expression LevelOctober 7, 2019DNA methylation got your expression down? Why not try targeted demethylation with Casilio-ME? CRISPR/Cas9 techniques have been applied to numerous biological tasks including regulation of DNA methylation. 5-methyl cytosine (5mC) is deposited by DNA methyltransferases (DNMTs) and removed by step-wise oxidation via the three ten-eleven translocation (TET) enzymes; 5mC is first converted to 5-hydroxymethylcytosine (5hmC), […]
A Perfect Harmony: Orchestrating Joint Chromatin Conformation and Methylome Mapping in Single CellsOctober 7, 2019If a better understanding of gene regulation is music to your ears, then tune in for the latest developments in single-cell epigenomics. It is well established that both DNA methylation and higher-order chromatin structure play crucial roles in development, differentiation and disease, and there are readily available technologies for both (whole-genome bisulfite sequencing and chromatin […]