Colon Cancer Signs on the Dotted Line with Epigenomic Enhancer SignatureApril 16, 2012Handwriting experts say that someone’s signature reveals a lot about their personality. Whether these analyses are “scientific” is debatable, but researchers in Ohio and New Hampshire have evidence that they’ve identified a signature of enhancer histone modifications that points to colon cancer. Mono- and dimethylated H3K4 marks many classes of enhancers, so the team did […]
Tackling the Dimensions of Chromatin via 3C with Dr. Job DekkerApril 12, 2012Dr. Job Dekker discusses trends that he sees in chromatin structural studies, Chromosome Conformation Capture (3C), and bringing a multidisciplinary approach into the lab to better understand chromosomes. This interview took place at the Keystone Symposia’s Epigenomics and Chromatin Dynamics joint meeting in January, 2012. This video was brought to you by epigenetics supporters […]
ChIP & Bisulfite-Seq Cut Through Chromatin, DNA Methylation ChatterApril 4, 2012There are two sides to every story. Maybe even more if you ask a lawyer. So it only makes sense that two epigenetic mechanisms like chromatin and DNA methylation would each have something to say about the genomic regions they regulate. Two new methods each combine ChIP and bisulfite sequencing in order to cut through […]
96 Reasons To Love Millipore’s Magna ChIP™ HT96 KitsApril 4, 2012Chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) is the workhorse of the epigenetics world, like a penny-stock is to a Wall St. broker. So why run just one or two at a time? That’s so five years ago. Now that the EMD Millipore Magna ChIP™ HT96 kits are on the scene, you can churn out up to 96 ChIP […]
Epigenetics Before Sequencing with Dr. Steven HenikoffApril 4, 2012Dr. Steven Henikoff discusses interesting observations like chromosome puffs in polytene chromosomes back in the days before sequencing. This interview took place at the Keystone Symposia’s Epigenomics and Chromatin Dynamics joint meeting in January, 2012. Epigenetics Before Sequencing So when I was a graduate student you couldn’t do any of this stuff, right? It […]
ChIP-String Ties Down Chromatin Regulator AnalysisMarch 22, 2012There are hundreds of chromatin regulators (CRs) out there, and yet we know so little about them other than that they control chromatin structure and function through interactions with histone mods. To help tie down the CR rules of engagement, some handy scientists developed the ChIP-string assay to provide a snapshot of several CRs in […]
Influenza Dodges Antiviral Response with Histone DisguiseMarch 22, 2012Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, they say. But instead of flattery, the influenza virus (and maybe many other viruses) imitates histones to make people sick. That kind of flattery we could do without. Researchers in NY and the U.K. discovered that influenza A (H3N2)—one of the strains that cause seasonal flu outbreaks—hijacks the […]
ChIP and Discs: Porvair’s Chromatrap® ChIP Kits Break through the NoiseMarch 22, 2012Over the last decade, the ChIP process has seen more enhancements than the Orange County Housewives. Improved antibodies, beads, and fine-tuned buffers—they’ve all ChIP’d in to take this useful method primetime in labs all over the globe. But there’s always room for improvement. Turning Up the Pull Down for Small Sample ChIP Some of the […]
Bivalent PREs Protected by Perfect TimingMarch 21, 2012There’s no substitute for good timing. It’s a trait that can keep you out of a dangerous situation, or make you look good on the dance floor. But for cells it’s also critical for maintaining epigenetic states during replication. Italian researchers at the IRCCS Santa Lucia Foundation recently identified a critical time window right before […]
Getting your Fix: Optimizing Chromatin Fixation for ChIP AnalysisFebruary 23, 2012Various ChIP methods are filled with all sorts of secret tricks that don’t seem to make it into the textbooks. This is especially true of the chromatin fixation step, where loads of variables make it difficult to pin down the exact conditions you need. Instead of learning the hard way, through failed experiments or apprenticing […]
