HDACking Histone Acetylation With dCas9-HDAC3June 12, 2017Hacking the epigenome is no easy task. Each deactivated Cas9 (dCas9) system boasts its own nuances that must be teased apart before we can crack the histone code with its suite of effector domains. When it comes to histone acetylation, we’ve seen the histone acetyltransferase construct dCas9-p300, which writes H3K27ac to activate gene expression. However, […]
Drive the LINE: H4K20me3 Beats DNA Methylation at LINE-1 Chimeric Transcripts in Colorectal CancerApril 10, 2017The drivers of gene expression maintain a fragile balance that tends to cross the LINE in cancer. LINE-1s are transposable elements full of both mystery and regulatory potential. Within their 5’ untranslated region (UTR) lies a bidirectional promoter (L1-5’UTR) that consists of a sense promoter (L1-SP), which transcribes the element, and an antisense promoter (L1-ASP), which […]
Genome Architecture of Single Cells May Shape Reprogramming to TotipotencyApril 5, 2017The soaring Eiffel Tower in Paris, the tumultuous Guggenheim in Bilbao, or the intricate genome structure of a single cell; which architectural marvel impresses you the most? For the labs of Leonid A. Mirny and Kikuë Tachibana-Konwalski, the latter looms above any such extravagant edifice, but the available analytical tools lacked the resolution required for […]
GAM SLICEs Through Enhancer ThreesomesMarch 24, 2017While chromosome conformation capture (3C) methods like single-cell Hi-C focus on coupled pairs of chromosome contacts, and even their promiscuous regions, candid snapshots of chromosomal threesomes have remained an intimate secret … until now. The genomic architects in the labs of Ana Pombo and Mario Nicodemi developed a new method and accompanying statistical model to […]
Large Chromatin Domains Drive Pancreatic Cancer’s Sugar RushFebruary 14, 2017A sugar rush can fuel many things. It can power the late-night experiments demanded by reviewer number 3 or it can drive tumor evolution. Fueled by both these factors, new insight into the linked metabolic-epigenetic mechanisms of metastasis comes at you from a collaborative effort led by the lab of Andrew Feinberg in the Center […]
Histone Modification Imaging Pr-EDICTS Stem Cell FateJanuary 27, 2017Will it rain? Will my team win? Will I get that grant? There are instances where a glance into a fortune-teller’s crystal ball could definitely give you the upper hand. Although the crystal ball is a myth, researchers from the lab of Prabhas V. Moghe (Rutgers University, New Jersey, USA) have recently developed a means […]
RICC-seq Uses Gamma Rays to Smash out Nucleosome-Nucleosome InteractionsJanuary 17, 2017Gamma rays can give super powers to scientific insight, whether it be PET scans, the Epigenetic Hulk, or nucleosome-nucleosome interactions. While we’ve seen a lot about the primary structure of single nucleosomes and the tertiary structure of large chromatin loops, it seems that the 1–3 nucleosome (50–500 bp) architecture known as secondary structure has been […]
Copy Number Variation and Environmental Exposure Unwrap the DNA Methylation Storage Box of AutismDecember 29, 2016Preparing for a big event takes a lot of work; whether it be the holidays or developing a brain’s epigenome, keeping a storage box ready to go for the situation just makes sense. In their latest publication, the lab of Janine LaSalle at the University of California – Davis unwrap the epigenetic storage box of […]
Frequently Interacting REgions (FIREs) Ignite Chromatin’s PromiscuityDecember 10, 2016Once thought to be monogamous molecules characterized by devote linear relationships, chromosomes turn out to be philandering conformation-changers with burning loins of desire concealed between their genes. Coming from the lab of Bing Ren at the University of California, San Diego, a massive analysis of genome-wide chromosome interactions captured by Hi-C uncovers a distinct piece […]
Step Up to the Plate: Chromatrap® ChIP Seq 96 Well FormatDecember 8, 2016There comes a time in every researcher’s career when you need to step up the throughput, but the thought of high throughput ChIP can be paralyzing. “How much sample is this going to cost me?” “What happens if something goes wrong…that’s 96 samples!” The first thing you want to look for when transitioning to high […]