Epigenetic Couch Potatoes: Running isn’t on the Resolution Radar of Rodents This Year Thanks to DNA MethylationDecember 11, 2019The year is coming to an end and you know what that means — it’s time to promise yourself that next year is your year to get fit. But if you’re one of the many who never quite live up to their lofty activity goals, don’t be too hard on yourself; your epigenetics may be […]
CpH DNA Methylation Steps Out of the CpG Shadow During Brain DevelopmentNovember 4, 2019DNA methylation and CpG sites just go together, so in fact well that sometimes we forget that DNA methylation can happen in other cytosine contexts too! With new advances in sequencing technologies, non-CpG methylation is stepping out of the shadows and being seen for the important role it plays. DNA methylation is particularly important in […]
Single Cell Analyses Reveal How Epigenetic Drift Makes Stem Cells Age Badly!October 28, 2019While cheese and wine (and whisky!) all get better with age, the human body fares less well! Although partaking in too many culinary delights hardly helps, studies have established the reduced number and activity of stem cells as a cause for the age-related deterioration of various tissue types. With this in mind, a talented team […]
Foretelling Future Hippocampal Transcription and Disease Risk with Early DNA Methylation ProfilesOctober 27, 2019Will it rain tomorrow? Will I ever win the lottery? Will our new paper finally be accepted!? Unfortunately, we have yet to come up with a sturdy means to predict our fates far in the future; however, new research by Hadad and colleagues now suggests that DNA methylation profiles in young cells accurately foretell changes […]
Studying TAD Boundary Issues Through Epigenome Editing of CTCF MotifsOctober 19, 2019So, your therapist says you have boundary issues? Well you’re not alone; CTCF is known to play a critical role in setting the boundaries of topologically associating domains (TADs), but there’s been no therapist to uncover their definitive impact. Thankfully, new research from the lab of Bradley Bernstein at the Harvard Medical School (Boston, USA) […]
A Perfect Harmony: Orchestrating Joint Chromatin Conformation and Methylome Mapping in Single CellsOctober 7, 2019If a better understanding of gene regulation is music to your ears, then tune in for the latest developments in single-cell epigenomics. It is well established that both DNA methylation and higher-order chromatin structure play crucial roles in development, differentiation and disease, and there are readily available technologies for both (whole-genome bisulfite sequencing and chromatin […]
Webinar: The Epigenetics of the Exposome and Aging – Paul G. ShielsOctober 2, 2019Don’t miss this great webinar detailing some of the latest discoveries about the role of epigenetics in aging. Aging results in a gradual and progressive loss of physiological functions and physical abilities over time. Overcoming the growing burden of age-related issues is one of the greatest challenges facing modern society. These issues are leading to […]
DNA Methylation Analysis Puts a Face to a Very Ancient NameOctober 1, 2019A long, long time ago, in a land far, far away (2014 at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel actually!) a team of researchers banded together under the leadership of Liran Carmel and David Gokhman. Rather than inventing the wheel or devising a strategy to capture wooly mammoth, the team developed a way to reconstruct […]
This Is the Methylome that Alzheimer’s BuiltSeptember 9, 2019“This is the House that Jack Built” is a popular and beloved children’s rhyme. But if children’s rhymes were written by scientists instead, it might look something like this: There’s an oxidation reaction on a methyl group, on a carbon in a cytosine, in a region of a gene, in the genome of a neuron, […]
Methylation Prevents Young Transposable Elements From LINE-1 Dancing Through the Neural GenomeAugust 13, 2019Whether you’re a fan of nightclubs, speakeasys, or honkey-tonks, you may have noticed that the population on the dance floor seems to get younger every year. Maybe you’re just getting older, or maybe today’s youth are getting better at getting around the rules. Like bouncers at a bar, developing cells have DNA methylation to keep […]