Integration now! DNA methylation, genomic imbalance, and gene expression analyses in osteosarcomaAugust 17, 2008No longer can the genetic and epigenetic causes of cancer and the resulting changes in gene expression be analyzed separately, with little regard for their interdependency. In this spirit, Jeremy Squire and coworkers at the Hospital for Sick Children, the Ontario Cancer Institute, and Queen’s University (all in Canada) conducted the first integrative analysis of […]
The Methylation Ultimatum in ImprintingAugust 7, 2008 Last week PLoS Genetics ran a great paper from Anders Lindroth and colleagues illustrating a mutually exclusive relationship between DNA Methylation and methylation of H3K27 in the a differentially methylation domain (DMD) of an imprinting control region (ICR). Now before we drop any more epi-breviations…. The area of focus in the study was a […]
Can Batman Save Whole Methylome Analysis?July 25, 2008With all the hype around Batman-The Dark Knight, we missed one of the most recent heroic efforts to facilitate global methylation studies. The unveiling of a Bayesian tool for methylation analysis (Batman) enables researchers to estimate absolute methylation levels across a range of CpG dense regions using methylated DNA immunoprecipitation (MeDIP) approaches combined with either […]
Ligation Mediated RNA-RNA AnalysisJuly 21, 2008Last week, researchers from the Karolinska Institute and the University of London released data on an innovative approach for studying RNA-RNA interactions. Data supporting the multitude of RNA functions in our cells continues to pour in, but challenges in analyzing the effecting complexes in cellular processes persist, so we tip our hats to this team […]
miRNA Retention and EnhancementJuly 21, 2008miRNAs, the small but mighty inhibitors of complementary mRNA sequences, might be accused of having a Napoleon complex, but they don’t start out life itty-bitty—they are transcribed as long primary miRNAs (pri-miRNAs). Cleavage by the RNase III-like enzyme Drosha in the nucleus releases a ~70-nt stem-loop structure (pre-mRNA), which is further processed by Dicer in […]
Mom, Methylation, and ObesityJuly 15, 2008Let the blame game begin. In addition to our lifestyle habits, our mothers could have something to do with those stubborn pounds that dont seem to shed. An interesting obesity studying involving DNA methylation has provided new evidence suggesting that obese moms give birth to kids who have a propensity to become even more obese. […]
Non-Invasive DNA Methylation Assay for Colorectal Cancer Now Available from LabCorpJuly 14, 2008Not even a month after announcing a reagent supply agreement with OncoMethylome Sciences, LabCorp has announced the commercial availability of the Methylation-Specific PCR Assay for monitoring the methylation status of Vimentin DNA. Marketed as ColoSure(TM) by LabCorp, the MSP Assay is being positioned for assessing any stage colorectal cancer in asymptomatic average risk patients who […]
Webserver for Aligning Non-Coding RNA Structure-WARJuly 13, 2008Finally a WAR with no conflict. We have to give a big electronic high five to the group from the University of Copenhagen who just introduced a very helpful web utility: WAR-Webserver for aligning structural RNAs is a very handy site that allows you to use the best algorithms for aligning and predicting the consensus […]
ChIPs and MeDIP: ChIP Antibody Selection TipsJuly 9, 2008Chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) remains a powerful method to characterize in vivo binding of DNA hugging proteins like histones and transcription factors and more recently has been used effectively for DNA methylation studies. The ChIP technique has been around since the days of big hair and “Miami Vice,” so we won’t review it here much, but […]
PatMAn and the Magnificent Seven Methylation ClassifiersJune 16, 2008It seems pattern recognition and supervised learning techniques are being applied to epigenetics research a lot nowadays. These advanced computational techniques that have proven useful in everything from homeland security to financial modeling are lending a hand to some of the challenges in epigenetics research. Recently we’ve seen them applied to miRNA discovery and target […]