Single-Cell ATAC-seq Shows that Chromatin Remodeling Allows Immune Cells to Remember COVID-19June 24, 2021While few will remember the last eighteen months with any great fondness, the memory of our immune cells represents a critical facet controlling long-lasting responses induced by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection and exposure to vaccines. In an unforgettable study, researchers led by Liang Chen, Mark M. Davis, and Pengyuan Yang now demonstrate […]
An Inclusive EWAS Filters Through the Trans-ethnic and Ethnic-specific DNA Methylation Profiles of Kidney FunctionJune 11, 2021Diversity and inclusion are important components of our modern society, and epigenomics is no exception. To build on our knowledge of ethnic differences and similarities, an inclusive epigenome-wide association study (EWAS) of kidney function has come forth to filter the hits. A group led by Charles Breeze (National Cancer Institute) and Nora Franceschini (University of North Carolina) conducted […]
New Single-cell CRISPR Screens “ATAC” Chromatin AccessibilityJune 6, 2021Have you been struggling to agree on a plan of action for your recent epigenetic experiments? Have you been fighting over just what strategy to use to decipher how genetic alterations affect the epigenetic landscape? While we should all follow John and Yoko’s example and try to give peace a chance, you sometimes need to […]
Where’s the Cancer Driver? MethSig Cuts Through the Background Noise to Identify Oncogenic Promoter HypermethylationMay 26, 2021As any TikTokker, Zoom presenter, or amateur photographer worth their salt can tell you, sometimes a good background is all you need to make your content really pop. It turns out that the same principle applies when trying to figure out which promoter DNA hypermethylation events drive tumor growth. MethSig, a new algorithm developed by Heng Pan in Dan Landau’s group at Weill Cornell Medicine, improves […]
CRISPRon, CRISPRoff… Two New Tools to Earn You the Black Belt in Hit-and-Run Epigenetic EditingMay 17, 2021Power, accuracy, and stability are the three tenets of hit-and-run epigenetic editing that every aspiring black belt must learn to master. To aid our quest, masters from the dojos of Luke Gilbert (University of California, San Francisco) and Jonathan Weissman (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) have come forth with not only new mantra but also a new set […]
Timing is Everything – Even for Maintaining the Global Epigenetic State of Human Cells!May 17, 2021They say that timing is everything – from the perfect golf shot to the most cutting joke – and now, a well-timed study establishes that DNA replication timing is everything when it comes to maintaining the global epigenetic state of human cells! Studies had previously described a link between the temporal order of DNA replication […]
scCUT&Tag: The Cutting Edge of Single-Cell Histone Modification ProfilingMay 11, 2021While we’re usually fans of shortcuts that make our lives easier, this exciting combination of accessible methods to profile single-cell chromatin modifications has our attention, no matter how you slice it. Chromatin profiling using cleavage under targets and tagmentation (CUT&Tag) allows you to investigate histone post-translational modifications and transcription factor occupancy, particularly when limited by […]
PANDORA-seq Opens a Pandora’s Box of sncRNAsMay 2, 2021The opening of Pandora’s box is said to have cursed the ancient Greek world with sickness, death, and innumerable other evils. Thankfully, a modern-day technique called “PANDORA-seq” brings forth new hope for removing these ancient afflictions on our epigenomes by identifying previously undetectable small non-coding RNAs (sncRNAs). A hopeful handful of researchers led by Qi […]
Meet the Escape Artists of X-Chromosome InactivationApril 22, 2021While an escape from the zoo sounds newsworthy on its own, the addition of X-chromosome inactivation (XCI) makes it irresistible for our news crew. An exciting new epigenetic effort has captured the exceptional XCI escape artists across eutherian mammals. XCI is a dosage compensation mechanism in females that results in the inactivation of one of […]
Nu.Q Capture‑MS: The New New of Liquid Biopsy Detects Histone Modifications on Circulating NucleosomesApril 20, 2021With the rapid pace of liquid biopsy assay development, it can be a challenge to keep up with the latest and greatest early cancer detection methods. Although most methods are focused on assaying the association of cell-free DNA methylation profiles with cancer, a new method homes in on circulating nucleosomes and their histone post-translational modifications (PTMs). In order […]