In the Dark Lanes of the Library, Beware of miRNA Sequencing BiasSeptember 9, 2010Advanced sequencing techniques have enabled the characterization and discovery of miRNAs to explode like an Icelandic volcano. But no matter how fancy your sequencing box is, the quality of your data still relies on the strength of your miRNA library preparation protocol. A group of curious scientists from the Beijing Genomics Institute and the Chinese […]
Silencing of Ultraconserved ncRNAs Is Not So Golden in CancerAugust 31, 2010If you live near a construction site, are listening to one half of a cell-phone conversation in a movie theater, or stuck on an airliner next to a fussy infant, then for you silence may indeed be golden. But, for certain ultraconserved non-coding RNAs, transcriptional silencing can lead to a cellular uproar. A new article […]
DNA Methylation States Mix and Mingle on the Nuclear Dance FloorAugust 31, 2010Remember those lame junior high dances, where most of us stood silently and uncomfortably against the gym wall, watching our wilder classmates rock out to Bon Jovi on the dance floor? Some researchers think that methylated and unmethylated promoters in tumors segregate themselves in the same way: silenced genes gather in heterochromatin at the nuclear […]
Mecp2, miR-212 Keep Cocaine Addiction In CheckAugust 18, 2010Anyone who’s ever seen an episode of Celebrity Rehab knows that addiction is a very complicated issue, and as scientists recently found out, even the molecular basis of addiction is no simple matter. A group led by Paul Kenny at Scripps Florida studied cocaine use in rats that were allowed to dose themselves with the […]
Protein Methylation: The Other Epigenetic RegulatorAugust 13, 2010While epigenetic mechanisms like DNA methylation and chromatin remodeling get most of the attention, more is being learned everyday about other important mechanisms that are just now starting to get their share of the limelight. In this article contributed by John Aletta at CH3 Biosystems, he explains how protein arginine methylation is also a key […]
FFPE: Friend or Foe to Chromatin Analysis?August 4, 2010It Seems like a no-brainer that chopping up proteins and denaturing DNA would have a dramatic effect on chromatin structure. Since so many cancer diagnoses, developmental studies, and examinations of chromatin structure in general rely on slices of wax-embedded tissue blocks, you’d think someone would take a comprehensive look at the effects of prepping those […]
iPS Cells Can’t Escape Their miRNA PastsAugust 4, 2010Even though the second season of The Jersey Shore takes place in Miami, the cast remain true to their ‘guido’ roots. I guess sometimes you just can’t change who you really are. The same is true for microRNA expression profiles of iPS cells. A recent review (Lakshmipathy et.al. 2010) from Ron Hart’s group at the […]
Uncovering 5hmC’s Link to Stem Cell Self-RenewalAugust 3, 2010The search is on to figure out a role for the recently discovered 5-hydroxymethylcytosine (5hmC) base. While it’s still up in the air if 5hmC will play a main character or just be cast as an extra , this new study in Nature ties the mysterious modification to a demethylation pathway, regulated by Tet proteins, […]
EpiGenie 2010 Mid-Year Editor’s Favorites: Non-Coding RNAJuly 21, 2010We’re halfway through 2010, so we’ve decided to take a look back at some of the best epigenetics publications we’ve covered so far this year. Here are some of our favorite Non-Coding RNA headlines. miRNA Decoys Psuedogenes finally get some love. Long considered to just be wasted genomic space, it turns out that they do […]
EpiGenie 2010 Mid-Year Editor’s Favorites: DNA MethylationJuly 21, 2010We’re halfway through 2010, so we’ve decided to take a look back at some of the best epigenetics publications we’ve covered so far this year. Here are some of our favorite DNA Methylation headlines. CpG-SNPs If your methylation profiles have been looking a little fuzzy, it could be CpG-SNPs are to blame. CpG-SNPs where found […]