Take a Bite Out of Cancer with the Epigenetics DietFebruary 1, 2011What’s your idea of a perfect meal? Whether you’re into the In-N-Out burger, fries, and milkshake trifecta, or you’re more of a “cleanse” type, the epigenetics enthusiast in you will be interested in a recent review by Trygve Tollefsbol and colleagues that reveals that certain foods contain ingredients that may prevent and treat cancer. Although […]
First Exon Methylation Gets Last Word On SilencingJanuary 31, 2011Arguments are often won by whoever gets in the last word, and while CpG Islands have made the most noise in the debate over how DNA methylation controls transcription, other gene regions like exons are now chiming in too. The classic model where methylated CpG Islands in promoters shut down transcription of a gene has […]
Single Cell Methylation Analysis: Brought to You by RMSAJanuary 30, 2011As DNA methylation keeps popping up in the discussion of more and more diseases, it’s clear that current analysis techniques can only give us part of the big picture. To help focus on other parts of that picture, a new method has been devised that zooms in on the methylation status of single cells. The […]
Ta-da! Blood Cells Transform into iPSCsJanuary 20, 2011Turning a cell into an induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) is tricky. It turns out that blood cells have an edge—they already epigenetically resemble iPSCs. When U.S. and Chinese researchers poked around the DNA of human CD34+ cells from umbilical cord blood and adult blood, they found that the promoters’ methylation patterns looked a heck […]
ChIP in a Box: Success with Abcam’s ChIP Kit and Primer SetsJanuary 19, 2011Sometimes thinking inside the box isn’t such a bad thing. Especially if that box contains the key ingredients to successful ChIP experiments like Abcam’s ChIP Kit. Abcam may be more known for its diverse antibody collection, but they also make kits to make those antibodies hum in applications like ChIP. Abcam’s ChIP Kit contains most of […]