m6A Enables XIST’s Repressive ExistenceSeptember 27, 2016Life can be hard out there for an X chromosome, particularly when faced with a well-known molecular form of sexual discrimination. The key to this repressive environment and resulting existential crisis is X-inactive specific transcript (XIST), a long non-coding (lnc)RNA known to undergo modifications such as cytosine methylation. However, RNA methylation is a rapidly evolving […]
Proteomic Analysis of Aging MSCs Reveals New Targets to Enhance Musculoskeletal TherapiesSeptember 27, 2016Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are surely the “workhorses” of both the body and the regenerative medicine field. They display multiple advantageous characteristics, including the ability to differentiate into musculoskeletal tissues, that make MSCs the go-to cell type for tissue-engineering solutions for disease/age-related disorders. Furthermore, many tissues require the proper on-going function of tissue-resident MSCs to […]
eBook: ChIP Seq Data Analysis Tools & DatabasesSeptember 13, 2016Chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) is a powerful workflow for analysis of chromatin structure. The antibody-based pulled down of protein-DNA interactions is only half the process. Once the genomic regions bound by a protein are enriched and sequenced, bioinformatics tools and pipelines are necessary to identify, characterize, and compare these regions between samples. This ‘dry’ side of the ChIP workflow is […]
Multiplexed CRISPR sgRNAs: Express One Get One FreeSeptember 13, 2016For all the focus on making CRISPR more accurate, effective, compact, and versatile, one key feature has remained elusive: the two-for-one special. In a way, it’s ironic that CRISPR multiplexing – i.e., expressing multiple sgRNAs from the same promoter to target multiple DNA sites – is not more straightforward. After all, natural CRISPR arrays are […]
DNA Methylation Detects Ovarian Cancer’s Tissue of OriginSeptember 13, 2016While epigenetic variation underlies the origin of many cancers, underlying epigenetic similarities can reveal cancer’s tissue of origin. High-grade serous ovarian cancer (HGSC) is the most common and serious type of epithelial ovarian cancer. However, there are two competing hypotheses about which tissue HGSC arises from. Ovarian surface epithelia (OSE) has been implicated, but the […]
Can’t Remember What’s Stressing You Out? Blame Histone AcetylationSeptember 2, 2016We can all relate to the side effects of severe stress in one way or the other. Severe stress affects us in many ways and contributes immensely to many pathological issues. One side effect of stress is spatial memory impairment. Whereas non-epigenetic basis of how stress impacts our spatial memory has been documented, no such […]
The Sunnyside of Precision DNA Demethylation by dCas9-TET1September 2, 2016On its quests to edit the epigenome like no biotechnology ever has, our deactivated Cas9 (dCas9) hero has come across many powerful effectors. When seeking out precision DNA demethylation, it has previously seen a multi TET1 approach. This makes use of both a dCas9 and TET1 catalytic domain fusion (dCas9-TET1) and also sgRNA 2.0 to […]
Tuning Chromatin Microenvironments with Epigenome EditingAugust 27, 2016Ensuring the sustainability of our environment is a noble goal, and when it comes to the chromatin microenvironments epigenome editing is no exception. While we’ve seen a range of epigenome editing applications, the long-term (mitotically stable) nature of these modifications has remained a challenge. In 2002, epigenome editing demonstrated that when it comes to the […]
Dendrimer-RNA Nanoparticles Go For Vaccination GoldAugust 14, 2016There is perhaps no tougher event in the immunity games than the vaccination all-around. Live-attenuated vaccines score high on efficacy, but they lack both speed (new formulations take months to produce) and endurance (they have short shelf lives). In addition, they have to work hard to avoid losing points on safety. Purified antigen vaccines have […]
Daisy Drive: The Safer, Prettier Gene DriveAugust 14, 2016Gene drives, which could theoretically engineer entire species, are a much-ballyhooed but little tested application for CRISPR-based genetic engineering. Gene drives would bias inheritance in sexual reproduction, with drive alleles passing themselves on nearly 100% of the time, instead of the 50% for normal Mendelian inheritance. Including a CRISPR effector like Cas9, a guide RNA, […]