Chromatin Altering Enhancers Help Genes Escape lncRNA SilencingNovember 23, 2011This holiday season, you may not be able to escape the big family dinner table, and the aunts and uncles that drink too much and bring up old arguments. But researchers at Temple University report that some genes can escape from the stranglehold of silencing that long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) impose. And they do 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) […]
Epigenetic Instability Passes DNA Methylation Variation on to HeirsSeptember 15, 2011There are loads of things we’d hope to inherit from our parents, like intelligence, good looks or maybe even the family fortune, but we’re pretty sure altered DNA methylation wouldn’t make the list. No use worrying about that, though, since we can’t do much about it…and how often does that really happen anyway? A group […]
DNA Methylation Not So Identical in Schizophrenic TwinsSeptember 14, 2011Monozygotic (MZ), or identical, twins may seem like exact carbon copies of each other, but recent work has shown that epigenetic variation between them is common, even though they share an identical genome. Sometimes these small but significant epigenetic differences are suspected to lead to very different outcomes when it comes to psychiatric disorders like […]
EpiGenie Antibodies in Epigenetics ReviewSeptember 13, 2011Antibodies. You can’t live with ‘em; you can’t live without ‘em. Even though they can sometimes drive epigenetic scientists nuts, top-notch antibodies continue to have a critical role in several epigenetic applications used in labs everyday. We’ve featured several articles that try to make life a little easier for those who work with antibodies. Take […]
Biocomputers Use miRNA Profiles to ID and Kill Cancer CellsSeptember 7, 2011Computers for your cells? Sounds like the plot to a Star Trek episode, but researchers report that they’ve developed a biocomputer that can figure out if a cell is cancerous and destroy it by triggering apoptosis —all by detecting miRNA levels, potentially leading to much more targeted cancer therapies than what’s available now. The researchers […]
NCBI NIH Tools for Surfing the EpigenomeAugust 31, 2011Massive epigenome mapping projects have led to a deluge of data that eager epigeneticists can’t wait dive into, but it’s not quite that simple. It’s no easy feat to learn about the best places to download, view or manipulate epigenomic data, much less understand the tidal wave of information once you’ve found it. It’s all […]
