Epigenetics Takes the Wheel as the Brain Mapping Project Gets Motoring!October 30, 2021It’s easy to get lost when motoring down the epigenetic landscape; thankfully, a group of cunning cartographers from the Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies Initiative Cell Census Network (or BICCN for short) has generated single-cell maps to guide your voyage of the brains’ motor cortex. Although this epigenetic road trip may be too long […]
Transgenerational Epigenetic Inheritance of Horizontally-transferred Memories Goes ViralOctober 4, 2021While research into the transgenerational epigenetic inheritance went viral long ago, a new “social media” platform powered by horizontal transfer has taken “going viral” a bit too literally. In their retweetable new article, researchers from the lab of Coleen T. Murphy (Princeton University, New Jersey) now demonstrate that virus-like particles (VLPs) support horizontally-transferred memories and […]
scSPRITE Adds a Twist to Single-cell Genome OrganizationSeptember 27, 2021Are your single-cell chromosome conformation capture experiments looking a little flat? Is your Hi-C data missing that “pop”? Well, don´t fret; a new study serves up a refreshing twist on a popular technique – scSPRITE – that will put some fizz back into your single-cell genome organization research! While bulk profiling provides an averaged read-out […]
CRISPR-EChO Amplifies the Sound of Silent ChromatinSeptember 6, 2021Hello heterochromatin, my old friend; CRISPR has come to edit you again; And echo in the sound of silence. As reported in a resounding new study, CRISPR-EChO comes at you from the lab Stanley Qi (Stanford University, California) and amplifies the sounds of silent chromatin. Following on from avant-garde studies describing CRISPR-GO and CasDrop, which […]
The Intergenerational Effect of Paternal Stress: circRNAs Join the Blame GameAugust 23, 2021Although we’ve known for a while that paternal stress can lead to problems down the road for their offspring thanks to DNA methylation and histone modifications, non-coding RNAs have now come full circRNA. In their latest, a talented team from the lab of Eric Miska (University of Cambridge, UK) decided to find out which RNA […]
Supersizing Crops by Demethylating RNA – A New Way to End World Hunger?August 23, 2021While supersizing meals has helped to expand the waistlines of many a human “couch potato,” a seriously sumptuous new study has established that RNA demethylation induced via the expression of the human RNA demethylase FTO in potatoes results in a supersizing that could help end world hunger. The transformation of exogenous and endogenous genes has […]
A Pack of Hyenas Gets the Last Laugh: Early Social Networks Change DNA Methylation and Adult Stress IndicatorsAugust 1, 2021Ever wonder what that pack of hyenas is laughing about? Well, it may just be your social status. But don’t stress over it too much, because they’ve given us a truly wild idea in this DNA methylation marvel: Having more friends and spending more time with them in early life makes for less stress at […]
Selfies from Beyond the Grave: CelFiE Deconvolutes Cell-free DNA Methylation MessagesJuly 27, 2021Although receiving a selfie from beyond the grave might sound disturbing, posthumous snapshots from dying cells in the form of the cell-free DNA (cfDNA) they release can help prevent us from entering an early grave. Giving Snapchat a run for its money is a new program called CelFiE (CELl Free DNA Estimation via expectation-maximization), which […]
Single-cell Multi-omics of the Immune Response to VaccinationJuly 26, 2021A recent viral study revealed that SARS-CoV-2 infection alters chromatin accessibility in our all-important immune cells to facilitate immune memory – but does the same apply to vaccination? To answer this somewhat flu-mmoxing question, a flu-id force of epigeneticists led by Bali Pulendran (Stanford University, California) utilized single-cell multi-omics to explore the effects of influenza […]
Getting Cheeky with Buccal Collection Methods: The Swab vs. Saliva Cellular Heterogeneity ShowdownJuly 23, 2021There’s nothing tongue in cheek when it comes to the consideration of buccal cell heterogeneity in sample collections methods. Although buccal epithelial cells are the target given their relationship with the brain DNA methylome, immune cells come along for the ride. As the lab of Jeffery Craig (Deakin University, Australia) has previously shown, buccal epithelial cell sample collection […]