Headlines Archives - EpiGenie | Epigenetics, Stem Cell, and Synthetic Biology News

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Ever get that feeling that you forgot something? Well maybe you did, but it doesn't have to be recent epigenetics research if you scope out our Headlines each week.

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Covaris AFA: Shear Elegance for Chromatin

June 5, 2012

Chromatin shearing is a key step in the ChIP workflow that can dramatically impact your experimental outcome, but so often the task of chromatin shearing is tackled with just brute force. Sub-optimal sonication or enzymatic approaches are like using a sledgehammer to chop fruits and vegetables. Fortunately, Covaris’ Focused-ultrasonicators use Adaptive Focused Acoustics (AFA) technology […]

Webinar: Defining Chromatin State by Characterization of Chromatin Regulators

June 4, 2012

EMD Millipore sponsored this recent webinar last month, that you can now replay at your convenience. Check it out. Chromatin Regulators (CRs) control chromatin structure, yet the rules governing these processes remain obscure. This presentation details a systematic approach to infer the function of CRs by mapping genome-wide CR-binding, and presents a novel approach for […]

Nature AND Nurture Both Contribute to DNA Methylation

June 1, 2012

A recent pub led by a talented research team might call for a ceasefire in the old “nature vs. nurture” argument. Researchers in The Netherlands and the U.S. say their new study on people conceived or born during the Dutch Famine of 1944-1945 piles on even more evidence that the prenatal environment and your genes […]

For Histone Variants It’s All in the Name

May 31, 2012

Understanding the nomenclature for histone variants can sometimes be like deciphering an ancient language without a translation app. And as more variants are discovered without a naming convention to guide the process, the confusion just keeps growing. That’s why Steve Henikoff and the rest of the attendees of the EMBO Workshop on Histone Variants last […]

Allele-Specific Histone Modifications Frequent Disease Loci

May 24, 2012

Just as “identical” twins can sometimes have a few noticeable differences (one has a mole on her cheek, the other doesn’t), alleles that are copies of the same gene also can be different. Allele-specific methylation (ASM) might get all the attention, but now researchers in the U.K. say that allele-specific histone modification (ASHM) might be […]

Try Zymo’s EZ DNA Methylation-Lightning™ Kit Free

May 24, 2012

Give the fastest bisulfite conversion kit on the market, the EZ DNA Methylation-Lightning Kit, a spin without spending a dime! Zymo Research is now offering free samples of the Lightning Kit through their website. Just look for the Sample Available icon in the right hand column, fill out the form and you’ll have a trial […]

DNA Methylation Deserts: Hot Spots for Structural Genomic Mutations

May 23, 2012

Deserts typically stir up images of desolate landscapes sprinkled with cacti, but according to a new report, ‘methylation deserts’, the 1% of the genome with the lowest occurrence of DNA methylation, are actually fertile ground for structural genomic mutations. A research group from the Baylor College of Medicine knew that the human genome contains many loci […]

Enhancers Set the Stage for Stem Cell Differentiation during Embryogenesis

May 23, 2012

It’s amazing to think that we all started out as one cell with DNA from our parents inside. Now, researchers in Spain and the Netherlands say that they have a better idea of how development happens—and enhancers are showing them the way by pointing out active genes. The researchers knew that active enhancers are marked […]

Conference Trends: Nutrition in Epigenetics

May 15, 2012

Conferences provide an up-to-the-minute look at what’s going on inside epigenetics labs all over the world. By tuning into our conference coverage, we’ve tagged diet and nutrition as an important trend to follow in epigenetic research. Here’s a look at some trendy examples in our Conference Highlights from the last year or so. Differentially Methylated […]

Nanofluidic Sorting and Analyzing of Single Methylated DNA Molecules in Real Time

May 14, 2012

Getting kids to line up single-file can be a challenge, but lining up single molecules for analyses can be just as frustrating. Now, researchers at Cornell report that they’ve done just that—they can line up single DNA molecules in a tiny channel in a nanofluidic device, sort them according to methylation state, then recover them […]