Small RNA Sequencing Adds Color(Space) to miRNA Dynamics in Stem Cell RegulationOctober 1, 2009For the last few years, stem cell researchers have been intrigued by miRNAs’ Houdini-esqe disappearing act as stem cells embrace their fate. Add in evidence showing how knocking out endogenous miRNA machinery like Ago2 can really add a few kinks to proper neural development and you get a stem cell community that’s fired up to […]
BayesPeak Analysis Ups Your ChIP-Seq GameOctober 1, 2009Proteins have been binding DNA for some time now, but only recently has ChIP-Seqencing (ChiP-Seq) pointed exactly where. As the technique becomes more popular, more researchers are wondering; what’s the best way to analyze the mounds of data they’ve just created with their ChIP-seq experiments? To tackle this problem, a group of bioinformaticians from the […]
Getting RIPped: miRNA Target ID Workout DeliversSeptember 9, 2009As former bodybuilder turned California Governator, Arnold Schwarzenegger, once said, “Great abs are made in the kitchen…” That may be, but when it comes to epigenetics research, great abs are made by great labs and suppliers, and they’re put to work in immunoprecipitation applications like RIP Chip. Recently, Anke van den Berg and colleagues at […]
Sorting Out Epigenetic Marks NanostyleSeptember 7, 2009Cornell molecular geneticist Paul Soloway wants to know where epigenetic marks coincide – and not just in which patients, or in which tissues, or even in which cells, but on which individual stretches of chromatin. He and co-PI Harold Craighead, an engineering physicist at Cornell, have an Epigenomics Roadmap grant that will help them find […]
Improvements in DNAm-Based Colorectal Cancer Screening Has Community BEAMingAugust 17, 2009We know how important it is to get colorectal cancer screenings, but they rank up next to taxes on the fun factor. In fact, we’d much rather have our doc run our blood or fecal sample through the new methyl-BEAMing (Beads, Emulsion, Amplification and Magnetics) technology developed by the DNA gurus of Vogelstein et al. […]
Clamping Down on Affinity ReagentsAugust 4, 2009U of Chicago protein engineer Shohei Koide knows there’s biology beyond the genome. Adding a methyl group onto a histone here, or an acetyl group onto one there, can change the way genes are expressed. There’s gotta be a reliable way of finding those postranslational mods in the first place, though, right? That’s why he […]
DNA Repeats; More Than Just Broken RecordsJuly 30, 2009Roughly half of the human genome is made up of repetitive DNA sequences, and yet their repetitive nature has made their study as difficult to decipher as James Brown lyrics on a scratched record. Recent evidence shows chromatin regulation of DNA repeats playing a role in gene regulation, genome integrity and chromosome maintenance, so scientists […]
One Small SNP for miRNA, One Major Impact on Gene RegulationJuly 29, 2009Not that we’re trying to downplay the magnitude of getting peeps on the moon, but when you consider the amount of gene regulation that can be packed into a confined miRNA-target interaction one small step for man seems kinda 40yr old hat. It’s no wonder that single base changes in miRNAs and/or their targets can […]
tiRNAs Emerge from FANTOM4July 22, 2009As deep sequencing platforms displace Nintendo’s Wii as the most popular toy in the research community, labs are discovering new varieties of RNAs at a dizzying pace. The latest edition, transcription initiation RNAs (tiRNAs), were recently identified by scientists at the University of Queensland in Australia, and published in Nature Genetics last April, by mining […]
On Your Marks: Antibodies That Should be in Every Epigenetics Researcher’s FridgeJuly 15, 2009Chromatin is a complicated scene. Staying on top of who’s who in residue and degree-specific histone modifications and chromatin modifying proteins is more than a full time job. So, if you’re looking to jump start your investigations and pull down some quick hitting data, you’ll want to consider picking up on some quality antibodies targeting […]