If You Snooze, You Lose: DNA Methylation Loss at Late Replicating Regions Tracks Cellular AgingApril 13, 2018“Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise!” While many night owls happily ignore this sage advice and enjoy a few extra hours in bed in the mornings, a new study regarding DNA methylation dynamics in normal and cancer cells gives credence to the old axiom “If you snooze, […]
Classification Conundrums: DNA Methylation and Central Nervous System TumorsApril 13, 2018It’s human nature to categorize the world around us. From the earliest taxonomic classification defining us as Homo sapiens, we’ve grouped dogs by breed (pugs, bulldogs, retrievers), wines by grape (merlots, chardonnays, pinot noirs), and of course, cancers by origin (gliomas, melanomas, sarcomas). You can order a DNA test for your dog, or ask the […]
Don’t Blame Mom, Thank Her! Extra Maternal Care Creates a Stress Resilient Epigenomic Profile in the Developing BrainApril 10, 2018Stress is something we are all too familiar with. When it comes down to a stressful situation, it seems that there are almost two types of people: those stricken by anxiety and depression, and those who keep on walking on as if nothing has happened. But what shapes such a distinction between people? One contributing […]
A Long non-coding RNA Superhero is GUARDIN our Genome from DNA Damage!April 4, 2018Batman swoops through Gotham, Supergirl flies over National City, and the Black Panther keeps his keen eyes on Wakanda; every superhero acts as a guardian of the beloved place they call home, protecting from any number of devious and dastardly threats. Now, researchers from the laboratory of Xu Dong Zhang and Mian Wu (Henan Provincial […]
Hemimethylated CpGs: Paradox or Paradigm?!March 28, 2018Science is full of paradoxes, and while we humble epigeneticists have yet to come across a cat that is both alive and dead, we have discovered a mysterious states of DNA methylation! For instance, some CpG sites can be both methylated and unmethylated at the same time, depending on which strand it is located on. […]