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CRISPR Interference Sheds Light on lncRNA Function

December 24, 2016

CRISPR/Cas9 regularly “lights up” our homepage here at Epigenie with new breakthroughs in DNA methylation, stem cell gene editing, and 3-D chromosome structure, to name but a few of the recent highlights. Now, an exciting new study published in Science has employed CRISPR/Cas9 technology to illuminate the “dark matter” of our genome; the ubiquitous but […]

dCas9-Dnmt3a-Dnmt3L Methyltransferase Seeds a Nuclear Reaction

December 15, 2016

Some scientific breakthroughs are so transformative that there’s no containing their spread once they’ve seeded. By engineering cellular nuclear reactions with a biochemical twist, the most powerful deactivated Cas9 (dCas9) methyltransferase explodes from the lab of Tomasz Jurkowski at the University of Stuttgart. The free energy of this reaction forges not only a new tool […]

Frequently Interacting REgions (FIREs) Ignite Chromatin’s Promiscuity

December 10, 2016

Once thought to be monogamous molecules characterized by devote linear relationships, chromosomes turn out to be philandering conformation-changers with burning loins of desire concealed between their genes. Coming from the lab of Bing Ren at the University of California, San Diego, a massive analysis of genome-wide chromosome interactions captured by Hi-C uncovers a distinct piece […]

Step Up to the Plate: Chromatrap® ChIP Seq 96 Well Format

December 8, 2016

There comes a time in every researcher’s career when you need to step up the throughput, but the thought of high throughput ChIP can be paralyzing. “How much sample is this going to cost me?” “What happens if something goes wrong…that’s 96 samples!” The first thing you want to look for when transitioning to high […]

Isolating Gene Circuits In Synthetic Vesicles

December 8, 2016

It’s that time of year again: time to attempt the sisyphean task of maintaining peace between relatives who are constitutionally incompatible. Suppose you want both the uncanny gifting skills of Aunt Mildred and the mouth-watering cooking prowess of Uncle Frank. But if you allow them in the same room at the same time, both the […]

Microbes and their Metabolites Serve Tasty Tissue Histone Modifications

December 5, 2016

The old adage reads “you are what you eat”, but a tasty new study turned that bland old phrase into “your histones are what you eat!”, and what’s more, those behind the study have worked the mechanistic link. Some of our daily diet (i.e. coffee and candy) acts as an energy and carbon source for […]

ATAC-see Assaults Chromatin from Two Fronts: Visualization and Sequencing

November 24, 2016

After playing hide-and-seq with chromatin for a while, we’re sure you’ve been begging for a new plan of attack to help you see what’s going on. Thankfully, a Northern California collaboration led by the lab of Howard Chang alongside the labs of William Greenleaf, Jan Liphardt, and Jennifer Doudna has brought forth a tactic to […]

Dnmt3C: A New Piece of DNA Methylation Machinery

November 24, 2016

A dog walk in the countryside led to Velcro, the search for chest pain therapies gave us (who me?) Viagra, and a messy microbiology lab bench provided penicillin. Some big research discoveries appear to have arrived in an “accidental” form and maybe, just maybe, new research from the laboratory of Déborah Bourc’his can be spoken […]

SALL4A Sets the Mood for a DNA Demethylation TET-á-TET

November 16, 2016

A romantic “tête-à-tête” between two lovebirds usually involves helping factors which set the mood and make the night move along slickly. A good wine, some soft lighting, and maybe even a little smooth jazz! While that might work for the humble researcher, the “TET-á-TET” involved in DNA demethylation is a slightly different affair and demands […]

PNA Nanoparticles Offer Gene Editing Alternative, Reveal SCF As Editing Enhancer

November 16, 2016

CRISPR/Cas9 may be the flashiest gene editing tool out there right now, but there are certainly other contenders for that throne. We previously profiled Argonautes as one alternative; another is peptide nucleic acids, or PNAs. Like DNA, PNAs are strings of standard nucleotide bases, but instead of a charged phosphate backbone, they are held together […]