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 […]
Microbes and their Metabolites Serve Tasty Tissue Histone ModificationsDecember 5, 2016The old adage reads “you are what you eat”, but a tasty new study turned that bland old phrase into “your histones are what you eat!”, and what’s more, those behind the study have worked the mechanistic link. Some of our daily diet (i.e. coffee and candy) acts as an energy and carbon source for […]
ATAC-see Assaults Chromatin from Two Fronts: Visualization and SequencingNovember 24, 2016After playing hide-and-seq with chromatin for a while, we’re sure you’ve been begging for a new plan of attack to help you see what’s going on. Thankfully, a Northern California collaboration led by the lab of Howard Chang alongside the labs of William Greenleaf, Jan Liphardt, and Jennifer Doudna has brought forth a tactic to […]
The Delicate Balance Between H3K27me2 and H3K27me3 Decides Stem Cell FateNovember 15, 2016The polycomb repressive complex 2 (PRC2) methylates lysine 27 of histone H3 (H3K27me) via its catalytic subunit Ezh2. While H3K27me3 and H3K27me1 have been associated with gene repression and activation respectively, the exact role of H3K27me2 remains under-explored. However, recent works in temperature-sensitive drosophila and in PRC2 knock out embryonic stem cells (ESCs) suggest a role […]
Hi-C Captures Chromosome Contacts Critical to Cognition, CRISPR/Cas9 ConfirmsNovember 15, 2016In today’s world there’s not much you can be sure of, particularly when it comes to understanding the complexities of human cognition. Thankfully, the epigenome offers some much needed explanation, as demonstrated by the insight gained from DNA methylation maps of human neurodevelopment. However, genetic interactions created by 3-D chromosome structure have remained more of […]
Cancer Stem Cells Refuse to be Linked to Linker Histone H1.0October 19, 2016It is widely known that tumor lesions harbor diverse subpopulations of cell types each genetically and phenotypically unique. However, it is not always clear which cell types are actually promoting or sustaining the tumor. Typically, tumors consist of two class of cells—a subpopulation of cells that are fully differentiated and possess little to none tumor […]
eBook: ChIP Seq Data Analysis Tools & DatabasesSeptember 13, 2016Chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) is a powerful workflow for analysis of chromatin structure. The antibody-based pulled down of protein-DNA interactions is only half the process. Once the genomic regions bound by a protein are enriched and sequenced, bioinformatics tools and pipelines are necessary to identify, characterize, and compare these regions between samples. This ‘dry’ side of the ChIP workflow is […]
Can’t Remember What’s Stressing You Out? Blame Histone AcetylationSeptember 2, 2016We can all relate to the side effects of severe stress in one way or the other. Severe stress affects us in many ways and contributes immensely to many pathological issues. One side effect of stress is spatial memory impairment. Whereas non-epigenetic basis of how stress impacts our spatial memory has been documented, no such […]
Tuning Chromatin Microenvironments with Epigenome EditingAugust 27, 2016Ensuring the sustainability of our environment is a noble goal, and when it comes to the chromatin microenvironments epigenome editing is no exception. While we’ve seen a range of epigenome editing applications, the long-term (mitotically stable) nature of these modifications has remained a challenge. In 2002, epigenome editing demonstrated that when it comes to the […]
