Cancer Therapy Gets a Little PersonalApril 14, 2015Just like snowflakes we are all unique (at least genetically speaking), and unfortunately for modern medicine so are our cancers. This individuality in cancers, even of the same type or subtype, means that there is no single cure-all. However, researchers, like those at the from Washington University in St. Louis and The University of Oklahoma, […]
Bees Model Their Potential for Epigenomic ResearchApril 13, 2015With spring in the air, the honeybees are already out and buzzing about and now an international team from Australia and Poland have created a different type of buzz with their research into 5hmC and its effect of bee’s behaviour. The importance of epigenetics in bees has already been suggested with the finding that honeybees use miRNAs to enable their […]
The Little Blue Pill Gets an Optogenetic UpgradeApril 13, 2015While there’s no denying that optogenetics is one stimulating piece of biotechnology, the double entendre of optogenetics being a ‘turn on‘ has now become fact. The lab of Martin Fussenegger at ETH Zurich’s Department of Biosystems in Basel, Switzerland has developed a synthetic optogenetic technology that allows for the blue Viagra® pill to be skipped by a blue light that induces penile […]
CRISPR Gets Creative with Histone AcetylationApril 9, 2015There’s been a lot of firsts in the world of genome editing happening lately, from its application in human embryonic stem cells, the identification of a smaller more versatile Cas9, to its upgrade to efficiently using homology-directed repair. Now CRISPR-Cas9 is getting its feet wet with epigenome editing thanks to the clever folks in the Gersbach lab […]
Slimmer Cas9 is Better Able to Squeeze into CellsApril 7, 2015We’ve already seen how CRISPR-Cas9 is making the headlines with its utility in human embryonic stem cell editing, but now it’s getting a makeover to make it even more attractive for use in humans. Current CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing technology is faced by two translational limitations. The first is targeting, where PAM sequences and sgRNA design […]
DNMT1 Loss is Lethal in Human But Not Mouse Embryonic Stem CellsApril 2, 2015Mouse models have been great to science, they’ve given insight into humans in ways simply not possible in humans. However, while there are striking similarities in the epigenetics of mice and men, there are also undoubtedly some fundamental differences. Now, a team from the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard consisting of the labs of Alexander Meissner, J. Keith Joung, and John […]
Sex On the Brain: DNA Methylation Defines GenderMarch 31, 2015A talented team from the University of Maryland has added some strong molecular evidence that DNA methylation is an active player in setting the sexual behaviors you’re born with. Sexuality has always been a complex topic. Typically it refers to presence or absence of certain sex organs. However, the concept of gender is more complex, as […]
Boosting CRISPR’s Editing EffectivenessMarch 31, 2015Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock you’ll know that CRISPR-Cas has been in the forefront of precise genome editing since its discovery in 1987 by Atsuo Nakata. However, as a technique it is not without shortcomings; while it has achieved a great deal of efficiency in the non-homologous end-joining (NHEJ) pathway, its ability to achieve […]
Cas9: The Ultimate Gene Driving MachineMarch 30, 2015Add one more to all the amazing things CRISPR can do: it is also the ultimate driving machine. Provided, of course, that you are a gene, and that your destination is any chromosome where you do not currently reside. Gene Drives Spread by Overwriting Alleles A gene drive is when a gene on one chromosome […]
H3K9me3: The Genomic Pacifier That Silences SINEsMarch 30, 2015Kids can be hard to handle, between dealing with drawing on the walls and public temper tantrums; therefore all parents need a successful tactic for keeping them under control. Short INterspersed Elements (SINEs) are like the chaotic kids of the genome. These repetitive sequences make up about 11% of our genome and because of their […]