CRISPR-EChO Amplifies the Sound of Silent ChromatinSeptember 6, 2021Hello heterochromatin, my old friend; CRISPR has come to edit you again; And echo in the sound of silence. As reported in a resounding new study, CRISPR-EChO comes at you from the lab Stanley Qi (Stanford University, California) and amplifies the sounds of silent chromatin. Following on from avant-garde studies describing CRISPR-GO and CasDrop, which […]
Supersizing Crops by Demethylating RNA – A New Way to End World Hunger?August 23, 2021While supersizing meals has helped to expand the waistlines of many a human “couch potato,” a seriously sumptuous new study has established that RNA demethylation induced via the expression of the human RNA demethylase FTO in potatoes results in a supersizing that could help end world hunger. The transformation of exogenous and endogenous genes has […]
Single-cell Multi-omics of the Immune Response to VaccinationJuly 26, 2021A recent viral study revealed that SARS-CoV-2 infection alters chromatin accessibility in our all-important immune cells to facilitate immune memory – but does the same apply to vaccination? To answer this somewhat flu-mmoxing question, a flu-id force of epigeneticists led by Bali Pulendran (Stanford University, California) utilized single-cell multi-omics to explore the effects of influenza […]
Single-Cell ATAC-seq Shows that Chromatin Remodeling Allows Immune Cells to Remember COVID-19June 24, 2021While few will remember the last eighteen months with any great fondness, the memory of our immune cells represents a critical facet controlling long-lasting responses induced by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection and exposure to vaccines. In an unforgettable study, researchers led by Liang Chen, Mark M. Davis, and Pengyuan Yang now demonstrate […]
New Single-cell CRISPR Screens “ATAC” Chromatin AccessibilityJune 6, 2021Have you been struggling to agree on a plan of action for your recent epigenetic experiments? Have you been fighting over just what strategy to use to decipher how genetic alterations affect the epigenetic landscape? While we should all follow John and Yoko’s example and try to give peace a chance, you sometimes need to […]
CRISPRon, CRISPRoff… Two New Tools to Earn You the Black Belt in Hit-and-Run Epigenetic EditingMay 17, 2021Power, accuracy, and stability are the three tenets of hit-and-run epigenetic editing that every aspiring black belt must learn to master. To aid our quest, masters from the dojos of Luke Gilbert (University of California, San Francisco) and Jonathan Weissman (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) have come forth with not only new mantra but also a new set […]
Timing is Everything – Even for Maintaining the Global Epigenetic State of Human Cells!May 17, 2021They say that timing is everything – from the perfect golf shot to the most cutting joke – and now, a well-timed study establishes that DNA replication timing is everything when it comes to maintaining the global epigenetic state of human cells! Studies had previously described a link between the temporal order of DNA replication […]
scCUT&Tag: The Cutting Edge of Single-Cell Histone Modification ProfilingMay 11, 2021While we’re usually fans of shortcuts that make our lives easier, this exciting combination of accessible methods to profile single-cell chromatin modifications has our attention, no matter how you slice it. Chromatin profiling using cleavage under targets and tagmentation (CUT&Tag) allows you to investigate histone post-translational modifications and transcription factor occupancy, particularly when limited by […]
Nu.Q Capture‑MS: The New New of Liquid Biopsy Detects Histone Modifications on Circulating NucleosomesApril 20, 2021With the rapid pace of liquid biopsy assay development, it can be a challenge to keep up with the latest and greatest early cancer detection methods. Although most methods are focused on assaying the association of cell-free DNA methylation profiles with cancer, a new method homes in on circulating nucleosomes and their histone post-translational modifications (PTMs). In order […]
Removing R-loops Regulates Repression: Revealing the Role of LSD1April 19, 2021Epigenetic regulatory cascades can be complex affairs…to say the least. Thankfully, a recent chromatin effector coregulator-based study now keeps us firmly in the loop by revealing how a histone demethylase induces gene repression by triggering a regulatory cascade that removes RNA:DNA hybrid structures known as R-loops! A talented team led by Philipp Rathert (University of […]