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Ever get that feeling that you forgot something? Well maybe you did, but it doesn't have to be recent epigenetics research if you scope out our Headlines each week.

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Hacking the Microbiome: Bacteria Advance Therapeutics and Diagnostics

August 5, 2015

Commensal bacteria have long had branding issues. First there was an awareness problem – “Wait, these things are inside us?” Then there was an image problem – “Germs! Bad! Kill!” They even had a Pluto moment, when it turned out a whole bunch of them weren’t even bacteria at all. Despite these difficulties, the word […]

Lights Out! Sleep Loss Affects DNA Methylation of Circadian Genes

August 4, 2015

‘La nuit blanche’. No, it is not a delicious pastry. It’s the French expression for staying up all night and not going to bed until the next evening, which in most cases will leave you pretty irritable. But losing one night’s sleep may affect more than just your mood; a new study by Swedish […]

Wanted: Serially-Offending Epigenetic Enzymes Implicated In Cancer

August 4, 2015

Epigenetic enzymes are among the prime suspects in the identity parade of genes responsible for the deregulation of the genome in cancer. But are the same epigenetic enzymes always found at the scene of the crime? A new analysis from a team of international researchers led by Andrew Teschendorff identifies three epigenetic enzymes that can […]

DNA Methylation Helps T Cells with their Career Path

August 3, 2015

In one of the lower valleys of Waddington’s epigenetic landscape, T cells are confronted with a fatal decision: Become a CD4+ helper T cell and assist your brethren in fighting evil invaders or turn into a CD8+ cytotoxic T cell and do the dirty work. But as in all good fantasy novels, our heroes first […]

Webinar: Multiplex Profiling of Epigenetic Modifications – Measuring Assay Specific & Off-target Effects in the Same Sample

July 29, 2015

Abstract: A variety of epigenetic modifications including post-translational modifications (PTMs) on histone tails regulate gene expression and have profound effects on cell signaling and human disease. N-terminal histone tails can have a variety of modifications, such as phosphorylation, methylation and acetylation at specific amino acid residues which are conserved throughout eukaryotes and function by altering chromatin […]

Exploiting Nucleotide Recycling to Kill Cancer

July 28, 2015

Have you ever had a doubt about what exactly you can recycle? The cell is faced with the same problem when it encounters epigenetic nucleosides. It does not really know if they can be recycled as they are or discarded. New research by the team of Skirmantas Kriaucionis shows that although such nucleotides are normally […]

Expanding the Genetic Code with Synthetic Bases

July 27, 2015

Life on Earth only uses 4 DNA bases (ACGT), but in principle, there’s no good reason why we couldn’t use more. Heeding the call of “this might be possible but nature hasn’t done it yet I wonder why not?”, synthetic biologists have been tinkering with synthetic bases to see if an expanded DNA alphabet […]

The Power of Cooperation In Biosynthetic Coculture Systems

July 27, 2015

Traditionally, most bioproduction culture systems use just one strain of yeast or bacteria. Sometimes, though, you just need a little help from your friends. That’s the idea behind the emerging field of synthetic ecology, which just achieved a major proof-of-principle success thanks to a team of MIT scientists. Cocultures have been used in specific cases […]

Human Nuclear Transfer and iPSCs: New Strategies for the Treatment of Mitochondrial Disease

July 27, 2015

We recently brought you news of an exciting study led by Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte in which his group successfully eliminated mutant mitochondrial (mt)DNA in oocytes to inhibit germline transmission of currently incurable mitochondrial diseases. Well he’s back, and this time he brought a friend. Shoukhrat Mitalipov has teamed up with Izpisua Belmonte in a […]

Stem Cell Derived Brain Orginoids Reveal a Root of Autism

July 27, 2015

Two cutting edge stem cell techniques have joined forces this week to produce a breakthrough in our understanding of the causes of Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). Years of study have gone into assessing if specific mutations in autism-associated genes contribute to the abnormal brain development observed in ASD with little or no luck. Seeing this […]