Vitamin C in Media Critical for ES Cell 5hmCJuly 24, 2013Whether its pop culture (like the ongoing royal baby mania) or cell culture, there’s no denying the enormous impact that ‘media’ has on our life. In fact, new evidence shows that a little Vitamin C in cell culture media can influence mouse embryonic stem (ES) cells, like typical pre-teens, to undergo a blastocyst-like identity crisis. […]
The Dynamic EpigenomeJuly 24, 2013EpiGenie recently reviewed the text Epigenetics by Jorg Tost. Here is a more in depth summary of one the chapters provided courtesy of JA Gill who is molecular biologist at NOAA in the Northwest Fisheries Science Center, to give you a little sneak peek into what the whole book is all about: The Dynamic Epigenome: […]
Placental miRNAs Predict Infant BehaviorJuly 18, 2013Many parents consider their children’s behavior to be a bit of a mystery, (just ask anyone who has shared a plane ride with an unruly toddler) but new miRNA research hints that it may soon be possible to predict your child’s behavioral traits by a simple non-invasive test right after birth. A fortune telling team […]
EpiGenie Guide: RNA Immunoprecipitation (RIP) and BeyondJuly 10, 2013RNA binding proteins (RBPs) play important roles in many cellular and disease processes, together with their DNA binding brethren, they compromise almost one quarter of annotated human genes. The tools used to understand when and where these proteins bind and interact with RNAs in the cell have lagged behind those for protein-DNA interactions, although they […]
Disrupting DMNT1’s Cancerous InteractionsJuly 9, 2013It seems like almost every gene examined today has it roots in cancer, and epigenetic mechanisms haven’t missed the invite to that party. But with all these players comes an overwhelming heterogeneity that has troubled researchers looking for a cure ever since cancer was described as an epigenetic disease. Some research groups have tried out […]
Turn by Turn Navigation of DNA Methylation Maps in the Human Brain Now AvailableJuly 9, 2013Whoever claims cartography is a lost art hasn’t visited the Salk Institute lately. The cliffside research palace in La Jolla is home to a number of ambitious researchers who’ve been busy the last few years mapping every nook and cranny of the epigenome. Most recently, a team of clever researchers led the charge on mapping “genome-wide composition, […]
It’s a Histone-Regulate-Histone World Out ThereJuly 9, 2013The central dogma has taken quite a beating thanks to epigenetics rule-bending ways. With all the cross talk and looping going on it’s hard to tell who’s the boss these days. In their recent review, Mahajan and Mahajan from the Moffit Cancer Centre in Florida discuss the implications of their latest finding (Nature Structural & […]
The Epigenetics of Stressed-Out PlantsJuly 2, 2013Stress is something that we’re all familiar with. A number of landmark studies on the effects of stress have been done in mammals. But it turns out that our cousins-from-another-ancestor don’t have dream lives either. Life is tough out there for a plant; you’re limited to one location where the conditions can change drastically over […]
A Great Start to RNA-Seq: Zymo Research’s RNA Clean & Concentrator™-5July 1, 2013With every high-tech advance in the methods used for RNA analysis , the need for extremely pure RNA input samples becomes even more crucial. The RNA Clean & Concentrator™-5 (RCC™-5) Kit from Zymo Research packs high-performance into a fast and easy format that enables even the most demanding methods, including RNA-Seq. RNA Clean and Concentrator™-5 […]
The Darkside of Epigenetic PlasticityJune 26, 2013Sure, genes get mutated in cancers, but the epigenome gets messed-up too. In fact, two researchers argue in a recent review that a “dysregulated epigenome” that’s too plastic and flexible could itself lead to cancer. Andrew Feinberg and Winston Timp, both from the Center for Epigenetics at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, wrote the […]