DNMT1-interacting RNAs (DiRs): DIY Methylation for the Locus that has EverythingOctober 18, 2013The holidays are just around the corner, but the gifts are arriving early as a talented crew of epigenetics enthusiasts published some great work in Nature last week that suggests some RNA transcripts have more self control than a Jedi. Look out Luke, these under appreciated RNAs fit DNMT1 like a glove, and block local DNA methylation. […]
We are the 98%: Intergenic Regions (Finally) Get Some BuzzOctober 11, 2013Many chose to focus on the ‘wealthy’ two percent of our genome that produces protein, but we’ve always found the other 98% to be much more interesting. Thankfully, we’re past the days of referring to non-coding, intergenic regions as ‘Junk DNA’, and new research is proving how scientifically rich they really are. Dr. Emily Hodges […]
A Crash Course in Folate, Nutrition, and DNA Methylation Regulation with Dr. Patrick StoverOctober 10, 2013Dr. Patrick Stover, PhD, the Director of the Division of Nutritional Sciences at Cornell University, provides a great overview of the key role of folate in one-carbon metabolism, and DNA methylation in nutrition. Folate, Nutrition, and DNA Methylation Regulation There’s a long history in the whole field of folate metabolism, one-carbon metabolism, that outcomes […]
R-Loops and GC-skew Predicts Epigenetic Effects of CpG IslandsOctober 9, 2013With the EpiGenie Fortune Telling Machine in the shop most of the time, it’s pretty difficult for us to predict much of anything. (Yeah, we didn’t see the whole ‘twerking’ phenomenon coming either!) But some enterprising researchers have developed a way to classify and predict the epigenetic and transcriptional activities of various promoter regions based […]
Inducible Models Breathe New Life into Epigenetic Inheritance StudiesOctober 8, 2013Food, toxins, and stress can all have enormous effects on the epigenome, but pinning down the true epigenetic mechanisms at work is the tricky part. While it’s been difficult to determine mechanisms of action in standard animal models, new ones have been developed using Tetracyline-induced systems, that make it much simpler to tease out how […]
Is Cancer an Epigenomic Disease?October 7, 2013Discovering what ‘causes’ cancer has been a goal as elusive as hitting the Lottery by playing only the numbers in your birthdate. To complicate matters, most cases are unique events within themselves, adding a layer of heterogeneity that leads to even more hair-pulling frustration among researchers. However, cutting edge research has now revealed a possible […]
SNPs, Nutrition, and DNA Methylation with Dr. Steven ZeiselOctober 4, 2013Dr. Steven Zeisel discusses the intersection of genetics and epigenetics in nutrition. SNPs, Nutrition, and DNA Methylation Well, we think that there are a number of genetic variants, single nucleotide polymorphisms. I’ll call them SNPs. These SNPs are extremely common in one carbon metabolism, especially among Caucasians. And we are reporting that these SNPs […]
Get the Lead Out of Your EpigenomeOctober 1, 2013What’s mainly orange, sometimes a little black, and usually obese? Congratulations if you guessed Agouti (Avy) mice! (And you may want to consider spending less time in a vivarium) These chubby little creatures are well established as environmental epigenetics models because a number of environmental exposures are known to alter DNA methylation at the Avy […]
Trinucleotide Repeat (TNR) Disease Cheat SheetSeptember 16, 2013Trinucleotide repeat (TNR) diseases are some of the latest disorders to be linked to epigenetic state. So Dr. Marguerite Evans-Galea and colleagues at the Murdoch Childrens Research Institute and The University of Melbourne, wrote up this review to act as a sort of cheat sheet for the mounting evidence of epigenetic mechanisms in TNR. This […]
Webinar: Epigenomics – One Molecule at a Time with Dr. Paul SolowaySeptember 16, 2013Dr. Paul Soloway, PhD discusses his latest work on technologies that enable the interrogation of epigenetic marks on a single molecule. **this webinar is no longer available** Epigenomic analyses are used for many applications, including discovering gene regulatory mechanisms; characterizing non-genetic transmission modes of adaptive and disease traits; identifying and detecting disease biomarkers; and for […]