Targeted Chromatin Capture (T2C)July 7, 2014With great resolution comes great price and manpower requirements, so the demand for a happy medium has remained at large for all those trying to catch some chromatin conformation. New players like Capture-C have stepped up to the plate and now Researchers from the Erasmus University Medical Center (The Netherlands) announce T2C: Targeted Chromatin Capture. Chromosome conformation capture […]
Placental Biomarker Captures Maternal StressJune 30, 2014Stress has a funny way of sneaking up on you, and with the newly understood dangers of stress being transmitted across generations, keeping the drama to a minimum is huge concern for expecting mothers. So, wouldn’t it be nice to have some sort of an early stress warning device? Placental miRNAs have already been used to […]
Going Global with DNA Methylation AnalysisJune 24, 2014It’s human nature to get enthralled by the latest, shiny new technology on the market, but sometimes a more established approach is just as effective. We recently connected with our friends at Zymo Research who point out that for DNA methylation analysis, researchers may not always need all of NGS’s bells and whistles, especially when […]
An Introduction to Epigenetic Editing with Dr. Marianne RotsJune 23, 2014Dr. Marianne Rots, Professor of Molecular Epigenetics and Head of Epigenetic Editing Laboratory at University of Groningen, Netherlands provides an informative overview of the current state of epigenetic editing approaches. Intro to Epigenetic Editing Epigenetic editing exploits the two main characteristics of epigenetics. On the one hand, epigenetic marks are heritable. This means the epigenetic […]
How Fatty Acids Alter the EpigenomeJune 22, 2014It’s is easy to blame our parents and their epigenetics whenever we’re struggling to squeeze into our summer swimwear, but a brand new study illustrates how our own dietary choices have a big impact on health. A team from Lund University have shown just how eating fatty acids is not only bad for your waistline, […]
Webinar: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: Getting Reliable ChIP Data From Difficult SamplesJune 19, 2014Johanna Samuelsson Ph.D., Senior Research Scientist at Active Motif covers some techniques to get killer data, even when your samples don’t make it easy. ChIP Overview I’m going to talk about chromatin immunoprecipitation, not necessarily focusing on all the specific details, but more the challenges with the technique, and those tricky samples that many of […]
Wild-Type Inheritance of DNA MethylationJune 12, 2014It seems like all news lately is focused on the terrors of the world and transgenerational epigenetic inheritance has been no exception, usually with a strong focus on how an exposure or trauma finds a way to haunt generations. But now now an optimistic team from UCLA have shown that a lot can be learned from examining […]
Mechanosensitive DNA Methylation Keeps the Flow GoingJune 12, 2014Going with the flow is a sound strategy unless, of course, something is disturbing that flow. Researchers from the Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University have shown that when blood flow is disturbed (d-flow) there is a responsive stream of gene expression changes triggered by mechanosensitive DNA methylation. Lead author Jessilyn Dunn shares that “It was […]
ChIP Shows Cas9 Can Miss the MarkJune 10, 2014Staying on target has always been the CRISPR/Cas9 claim to genome editing fame, leading to incredible breakthroughs in the application of this bacterial immune system to mammals and as a cure for inherited disease. But now a sharpshooting team from the University of Virginia have used a clever application of ChIP-Seq to show that sometimes Cas9 can cause off-target effects. […]
5hmU: Tet’s Newest Base on the BlockJune 9, 2014While Apple seems focused on reducing complexity, the epigenome just can’t stop increasing it. Researchers from the Ludwig-Maximilians-University in Munich have shown that Tet enzymes oxidize not only the methyl group of methyl-cytosine (mC) but also thymine (T). An analog to the traditional oxidation of 5mC to 5hydroxymethyl-cytosine (5hmC), this case generates hydroxymethyl-uracil (5hmU). By tracing metabolically stable isotopes […]