LADL-ing Up a New Optoepigenetic Chromatin Looping TechniqueAugust 12, 2019For your daily serving of epigenetics brain food, look no further than the entwined spaghetti-like chromatin. Although it may look like a bowl full of chaos, there are distinct domains and long-range genomic interactions that function in a variety of regulatory roles. A team at the University of Pennsylvania (USA) led by Jennifer Phillips-Cremins and […]
“CoRSIV” Writing: Jotting Down Interindividual Variation in DNA MethylationAugust 6, 2019From playwrights to poets, many writers take advantage of word processing software to keep their writing under control. However, variety is the spice to life, and others swear that putting quill to parchment and writing out their epic tales in good old flowing cursive helps to get the creative juices flowing. As a testament to […]
Existential Epigenetics: Deciphering the Where, the Why, and the How of m6A and m6Am mRNA Methylation!July 26, 2019Can we break the speed of light? Is the universe infinite? What is the answer to life, the universe, and everything? At least two of these questions have fascinated physicists and philosophers for decades, but the questions weighing heavy on their minds of the existential epigeneticists among us relate to something a little different: the […]
ChIP 101: Beginner’s Guide to ChIP AssaysJuly 24, 2019Become a ChIP Assay Expert! The chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) assay is one of the best ways to study the association of DNA-binding proteins with chromatin and the localization of histone modifications throughout the genome. But ChIP assays take time to master. Our friends at Active Motif have put together this free ChIP 101 eBook that […]
SMARCA2 Variants Leave a Domain-Specific DNA Methylation Signature in Neurodevelopmental DisordersJuly 16, 2019Our signatures are unique marks that let people know where we’ve been. It turns out that epigenetic modifiers leave their own signatures on the genome. There are between 300-400 proteins that regulate the epigenome, including readers, writers, & erasers of histone marks as well as chromatin remodelers. Genetic variants in the epigenes that encode these […]