Covaris AFA: Shear Elegance for ChromatinJune 5, 2012Chromatin shearing is a key step in the ChIP workflow that can dramatically impact your experimental outcome, but so often the task of chromatin shearing is tackled with just brute force. Sub-optimal sonication or enzymatic approaches are like using a sledgehammer to chop fruits and vegetables. Fortunately, Covaris’ Focused-ultrasonicators use Adaptive Focused Acoustics (AFA) technology […]
Webinar: Defining Chromatin State by Characterization of Chromatin RegulatorsJune 4, 2012EMD Millipore sponsored this recent webinar last month, that you can now replay at your convenience. Check it out. Chromatin Regulators (CRs) control chromatin structure, yet the rules governing these processes remain obscure. This presentation details a systematic approach to infer the function of CRs by mapping genome-wide CR-binding, and presents a novel approach for […]
Nature AND Nurture Both Contribute to DNA MethylationJune 1, 2012A recent pub led by a talented research team might call for a ceasefire in the old “nature vs. nurture” argument. Researchers in The Netherlands and the U.S. say their new study on people conceived or born during the Dutch Famine of 1944-1945 piles on even more evidence that the prenatal environment and your genes […]
For Histone Variants It’s All in the NameMay 31, 2012Understanding the nomenclature for histone variants can sometimes be like deciphering an ancient language without a translation app. And as more variants are discovered without a naming convention to guide the process, the confusion just keeps growing. That’s why Steve Henikoff and the rest of the attendees of the EMBO Workshop on Histone Variants last […]
Allele-Specific Histone Modifications Frequent Disease LociMay 24, 2012Just as “identical” twins can sometimes have a few noticeable differences (one has a mole on her cheek, the other doesn’t), alleles that are copies of the same gene also can be different. Allele-specific methylation (ASM) might get all the attention, but now researchers in the U.K. say that allele-specific histone modification (ASHM) might be […]