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TET Proteins: Defending Differentiation by denying de novo Methylation!

December 13, 2017

I don´t overeat! I’m not lazy! I’m not eating the agar plates when I´m working in the lab late, honest! Psychologists consider denial as one of our most primitive defense mechanisms and recent studies of epigenetic defense mechanisms in embryonic stem cells (ESCs) by the labs of Olivier Elemento (Weill Cornell Medical College) and Danwei […]

Hit-and-Run Epigenetic Editing Helps Breast Cells Evade Cycle Arrest

December 11, 2017

While a hit-and-run typically leads to an arrest, in the world of epigenetic editing it turns out to be the key to evading cell cycle arrest (senescence) and promoting the transformation of a law-abiding cell into a cancerous criminal! The hypermethylation of promoters at the wrong time and wrong place is a trademark of cancer, […]

One-Carbon, One Long Life: Methyl Donors Linked to Longevity

November 22, 2017

While manipulating DNA methylation has taken up most of our lifespans, the manipulation of methyl donors critical to this process may just be the key to making up for the lost time. During one-carbon metabolism, the essential amino acid methionine is metabolized into S-adenosylmethionine (SAM), a methyl donor responsible for DNA and histone methylation. Donation of […]

Visualizing CRISPR-Cas9 Genome Editing: Seeing is Believing!

November 22, 2017

Many studies have put their faith in CRISPR-Cas9 as a means to edit genes in human embryos, to fight HIV, and to explore epigenetic regulation. However, if you are someone who really needs to see CRISPR-Cas9 in action to believe it, an epic new study has you covered! So, cast away those doubts and qualms, […]

dCas9 Shoots Down Microsatellite Repeat Expansion

November 22, 2017

Dealing with microsatellite disorders has been as difficult as shooting down actual satellites, but thanks to dCas9 its gotten a lot easier. The CRISPR/Cas9 system has proven to be much more than just a pair of scissors. For instance, CRISPR interference (CRISPRi) uses deactivated Cas9 (dCas9) to create site-specific steric hinderance to perturb gene expression. […]

An endosiRNA Trap Shoots Down the Transposable Element Rebellion of Embryonic Development

November 12, 2017

During early embryonic development, our genome lets down its DNA methylation defenses and becomes vulnerable to rebellious transposable elements (TEs). However, those rebel scum are quickly met with a barrage of endogenous short interfering RNAs (endosiRNAs), all before they realize even realize that “It’s A Trap!” The mechanism of this cunning tactic employed by our […]

Base Resolution Profiling Details the Intricacies of the m1A RNA Modification

November 4, 2017

Insurance contracts, loan agreements, and scientific studies; while it’s easy to pretend that we know what´s going on after a quick skim, we often require a detailed interpretation of the complex combinations of letters, numbers, symbols, and accents to gain a fuller comprehension of the matter at hand. In the realm of our epitranscriptomic language, […]

High-Resolution Hi-C Delivers High-End Chromatin Conformation Maps of Neural Development

November 2, 2017

Hi-C-based three-dimensional chromatin conformation analysis is currently living the high-life, with multiple high-impact studies recently employing this high-flying molecular technique to gain new insight into the cell cycle, fertilization, and reprogramming. Now, researchers under the high command of Boyan Bonev and Giacomo Cavalli (Université de Montpellier, France) have applied this high-class technique to understand how […]

Your Brain on Stress: The Role of Dynamic DNA 6mA Modification

October 30, 2017

Stress has a way of getting under our skin, where it can sink in so deep that it modifies our brain’s DNA. While it can alter DNA cytosine modifications, such as 5-methylcytosine (5mC), a new role for the N6-methyladenine (6mA) modification in stress response has now emerged. DNA 6mA has recently made the grade as […]

UBE3A Networks with Other Imprinted Genes to Shape Neurodevelopment and Autism

October 24, 2017

Networking shapes our brains in many ways; whether it be in a professional, social, or genomically imprinted fashion. Linking us into the latter, new findings from the lab of Janine LaSalle at the University of California, Davis, uncover a hub in an imprinted gene network critical to neurodevelopment. The imprinted 15q11-q13 locus is involved in […]