Get Captivating Performance with Zymo’s Genome-wide 5-hmC Analysis ServiceNovember 29, 2011The interest in 5-hydroxymethylcytosine (5-hmC) seems to be increasing faster than the national debt, but there still aren’t many tools available to aid scientists in understanding the 6th base, especially in a genome-wide context. Most current antibody and IP-based approaches are useful but can be a little difficult when applied to NGS. Fortunately, the methylation […]
EpiGenie Review: DNA Methylation in CancerNovember 28, 2011DNA Methylation definitely has a major role in cancer, but with the all of the different tissue types and cancer variations, it’s been nearly impossible to define exactly what that role is. That hasn’t stopped dedicated researchers from chipping away at the task, though…or EpiGenie from covering it. Check out the advances in understanding DNAm […]
Socio-Economic Status Leaves A Methyl Mark on DNANovember 9, 2011Candidates for public office never seem to learn that you can’t escape your past. It’s almost like they’ve never even heard of Google or YouTube or something! Speaking of not letting go of the past, we’ve seen a few papers recently suggesting that some epigenetic changes in early life can stick around for decades. Now, […]
Epigenetic Marker Maternal Blood Prenatal Trisomy 21November 8, 2011Screening for trisomy 21, or Down Syndrome, is a terrifying experience for soon-to-be parents that’s made even worse by the anxiety of the invasive procedures used in today’s testing methods. Soon, though, new diagnostics based on epigenetic markers should be able to indicate prenatal trisomy 21 from just a bit of mom’s blood. A new […]
DNA Methylation Changes in CancerOctober 29, 2011EpiGenie ran recently ran a review of the new text Epigenetics: A Reference Manual. Now, to present a little taste of what the book has to offer, here’s a summary of one of the chapters. DNA Methylation Changes in Cancer By Samson Mani and Zdenko Herceg Epigenetic mechanisms can contribute to each step of cancer […]
Macrosatellite EpigeneticsOctober 28, 2011EpiGenie ran recently ran a review of the new text Epigenetics: A Reference Manual. Now, to present a little taste of what the book has to offer, here’s a summary of one of the chapters. Macrosatellite Epigenetics By Brian P. Chadwick The sequence of the human genome does not differ considerably from that of other […]
EpiGenie Review: Environmental Links to Epigenetics and CancerOctober 27, 2011If our daily environment can lead to cancer, and it can also alter our epigenetics, then it only makes sense that there is a connection between all three things. Here are the articles EpiGenie has written about showing the evidence linking environmental factors, and epigenetic mechanisms together with cancer. Environmental – Epigenetic Link to Cancer […]
RNA Demethylation in ObesityOctober 19, 2011In news more surprising than the rise of the Occupy Wall Street movement, researchers have unearthed a novel mechanism in which RNA demethylation is mediated by, of all things, the obesity related protein FTO. FTO is a well-established target of obesity and diabetes researchers, but its function has so far been elusive. At least it […]
Born to Lose: Histone Mods Tag Stem Cells for DNA Methylation of miRNA Loci in CancerOctober 12, 2011It’s usually not hard to spot when things seem like they’re destined for failure. Like you ne’er do well cousin, or an American car from the 80’s. Other times, closer examination is required to find the seeds of a problem. That’s what it took for scientists to uncover how some harmless embryonic stem cells (ESCs) […]
Baby Epigenomes Thank You For Not SmokingOctober 10, 2011It’s no secret that smoking is bad, now new evidence shows that smoking during pregnancy could be very dangerous for a fetus. In a recent report, Baylor College of Medicine researchers found that moms who light up are also altering their babies’ epigenomes and transcriptomes. In some previous work, the scientists had only looked at […]