O-allylhydroxylamine Threatens Bisulfite’s Gold Standard StatusSeptember 23, 2010Let’s get ready to rumble! A new reagent, O-allylhydroxylamine, has entered the ring to challenge bisulfite conversion as the undisputed champion of DNA methylation analysis. In the latest issue of Nucleic Acids Research, chemists from Ludwig-Maximillians University in Germany introduced a new chemical reagent that could be a game-changer for distinguishing between cytosine (C) and […]
Heterogeneous DNA Methylation and Biomarkers: It’s ComplicatedSeptember 23, 2010The state of the economy, global climate change, DNA methylation…These are all complicated issues. Well, we found one well-written review article by Thomas Mikeska, Ida Candiloro, and Alexander Dobrovic at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre and the University of Melbourne in Australia that tries to put one of those topics, DNA methylation in perspective, at […]
miRNAs Go with the FlowSeptember 23, 2010Many of us dread the inevitable needle prick at the doctor’s office to draw blood, not to mention even more invasive diagnostic tests (colonoscopy, anyone?). Wouldn’t it be easier if we could just spit or pee in a cup, and from the spectrum of miRNAs in the fluid, our doctor could tell us whether or […]
DNA Methylation Holds Steady in Body Mass IndexSeptember 17, 2010Mules are well known for being stubborn creatures, but they aren’t alone. It seems that resistance to change is something they may have in common with body weight and certain stretches of your epigenome. Andrew Feinberg and M. Daniele Fallin at Johns Hopkins University led several teams in a study that shows, for the first […]
Grabbing Histones By The TailSeptember 15, 2010For those old-school scientists who are still using erector sets and Lincoln logs to model the interactions between histone tails and proteins, we’ve found a new interactive tool that’ll bring your histone analysis into the 21st century. A team from the Structural Genomics Consortium (a collaboration between the University of Oxford and the University of […]
In the Dark Lanes of the Library, Beware of miRNA Sequencing BiasSeptember 9, 2010Advanced sequencing techniques have enabled the characterization and discovery of miRNAs to explode like an Icelandic volcano. But no matter how fancy your sequencing box is, the quality of your data still relies on the strength of your miRNA library preparation protocol. A group of curious scientists from the Beijing Genomics Institute and the Chinese […]
Polymerase Furiosus Over Lack of Credit in Bisulfite SequencingSeptember 1, 2010At EpiGenie, we try to call attention not just to the big names in the field that nab most of the limelight, but also to the folks busting their pipettes day and night for new discoveries. So why not give a shout out to a workhorse in the most widely used method for methylation analysis, […]
Silencing of Ultraconserved ncRNAs Is Not So Golden in CancerAugust 31, 2010If you live near a construction site, are listening to one half of a cell-phone conversation in a movie theater, or stuck on an airliner next to a fussy infant, then for you silence may indeed be golden. But, for certain ultraconserved non-coding RNAs, transcriptional silencing can lead to a cellular uproar. A new article […]
DNA Methylation States Mix and Mingle on the Nuclear Dance FloorAugust 31, 2010Remember those lame junior high dances, where most of us stood silently and uncomfortably against the gym wall, watching our wilder classmates rock out to Bon Jovi on the dance floor? Some researchers think that methylated and unmethylated promoters in tumors segregate themselves in the same way: silenced genes gather in heterochromatin at the nuclear […]
The Epigenetics of Mental IllnessAugust 31, 2010Mental disorders like depression will likely affect 1/6 of Americans at some point in their life. That probability might be higher if you’re a Cleveland sports fan, but seriously, with mental illnesses affecting hundreds of millions of people globally each year, we’re glad to see an increasing focus on the epigenetics of these disorders. In […]