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eBook: DNA Demethylation in Development

March 19, 2016

This ebook provides an introduction to the key cytosine base modifications: 5-methylcytosine, 5-hydroxymethylcytosine (5hmC), 5-formylcytosine (5fC), and 5-carboxylcytosine (5caC) that have been at the center of intense study in recent years. Inside, we’ve compiled numerous highlights that provide background on how these modifications function in DNA demethylation and also highlight the growing data that captures the role of demethylation […]

Manipulating DNA Methylation with dCas9-DNMT3A

March 19, 2016

Almost immediately after its inception as a biotechnological tool, CRIPSR/Cas9 showed that it was more than just a genome editor. Deactivated Cas9 (dCas9) is a precision RNA-guided DNA-binding domain with a growing range of effector domains that can be swapped out like LEGO. When it comes to epigenome editing with dCas9, histones have led the […]

Magnetogenetics Goes Deep Into the Brain

March 19, 2016

The ability to control things with magnetic fields is no longer restricted to the mischief of comic book villains. Using synthetic biology to figure out just what neurons do has always been a tricky task, because it has been limited by requiring invasive surgery (optogenetics) or slow on-off kinetics (drugs). But now magnetogenetics emerges as […]

Peeping in on Dynamic All-or-None Single-Cell Chromatin Repression

March 6, 2016

Ever dream of knowing the single-cell details of chromatin regulators in real-time only to awake trapped in the static world of heterogenous cell populations? Well, dream no longer because thanks to the efforts of the Elowitz laboratory at Caltech researchers now have the ability to see just how some of our favorite epigenetic repressors (HDAC4, KRAB, DNMT3B […]

Elevate Your Epigenetics Game with DeepBlue and epiGbs

March 2, 2016

When it comes time to tackle the big data of the epigenome, tools and databases are your best friend. However, in today’s modern world, there’s more than one way to crack the epigenome and now two new tools serve up some interesting perspectives on the use of reference sequence. Going Deep into Databases Felipe Albrecht […]

LEXY: Optogenetic Nuclear Export for Proteins Looking to Go Places

March 2, 2016

Optogenetics is one of the flashier techniques of the past decade. Instead of slow chemical or blunt physical interventions, optogenetics controls events inside cells with the timing and precision of a beam of light. Optogenetic success stories thus far include light-activated neuron firing, heart beating, organelle positioning, protein dimerization, membrane localization, gene editing, and import […]

Aspirin and lncRNA Team Up on Tumors

March 1, 2016

Over 100 years ago, the founder of chemotherapy, Paul Ehrlich, coined the term “magic bullet” to describe an ideal therapeutic agent used to target disease, such as cancer. Since then, we have assessed many different anti-tumorigenic compounds, although we are only beginning to understand just how some of these bullets hit their target. This understanding, […]

Guide: Optimizing ChIP Seq for FFPE Samples

February 25, 2016

Inside the world’s formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded (FFPE) tissue repositories exists an enormous store of biological information. This valuable preservation technique allows researchers to perform histological and even genetic analysis years after sample collection. Although the FFPE process is a valuable preservation process, it presents challenges to researchers seeking to apply epigenetic techniques such as chromatin immunoprecipitation […]

MeRIP-seq, N1-methyladenosine (m1A), and the Expanding Epitranscriptome

February 23, 2016

There’s no denying that understanding a new language can be tricky. Without a complete alphabet, the most important messages can be lost in translation. When it comes to complex languages, the epigenome is no exception. There are a number of RNA base modifications involved in post transcriptional regulation, including pseudouridine (Ψ) and 5hmC, and there’s […]

SynNotch: A USB Cord For Cells

February 23, 2016

If synthetic biology is trying to make cells more like computers, one thing that has been sorely lacking is input-output. It’s hard to get arbitrary information about the outside environment into cells. We do have some sensors that we can modify to sense different inputs, like chimeric antigen receptors (CARs) for T-cells, but they only […]