Epitranscriptomic Editing: m6A RNA Methylation Tools Join the CRISPR Arms RaceSeptember 11, 2019CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing has revolutionized not only the way genomes are modified, but thanks to deactivated Cas9 (dCas9) and it’s growing arsenal of effector domains, it has also provided the tools needed for the epigenome editing revolution. However, to date, the tools to modify RNA itself have been lagging behind in the epigenome editing arms […]
Maladaptive Memories are Mediated by Methylated Histones and ΔFosB in the Mouse HippocampusSeptember 10, 2019The air is starting to get crisp, the first few leaves are changing color and you can suddenly buy pumpkin-spice everything – these contextual cues can only mean one thing; you’d better start studying for your midterms! But wait, you haven’t had to worry about exams for years… Thanks to your hippocampus and epigenetics, environmental […]
This Is the Methylome that Alzheimer’s BuiltSeptember 9, 2019“This is the House that Jack Built” is a popular and beloved children’s rhyme. But if children’s rhymes were written by scientists instead, it might look something like this: There’s an oxidation reaction on a methyl group, on a carbon in a cytosine, in a region of a gene, in the genome of a neuron, […]
Methylation Prevents Young Transposable Elements From LINE-1 Dancing Through the Neural GenomeAugust 13, 2019Whether you’re a fan of nightclubs, speakeasys, or honkey-tonks, you may have noticed that the population on the dance floor seems to get younger every year. Maybe you’re just getting older, or maybe today’s youth are getting better at getting around the rules. Like bouncers at a bar, developing cells have DNA methylation to keep […]
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 […]