eBook: Epigenetics of Cancer & Disease RiskMay 3, 2023The application of epigenetic approaches to disease research is moving quickly and hundreds of new papers are published every year, from virology to neurobiology and cancer. In this eBook, we present short summaries of interesting discoveries that caught our attention in each of these areas. Table of Contents Chapter 1: Epigenetics in Disease Risk Taking […]
H2B or Not H2B – Which Histone Modification Distinguishes Active Enhancers?May 1, 2023Science has moved on since William Shakespeare put quill to parchment around 1600 to write the Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, but his legacy has survived to influence a new manuscript that describes the quest to discover histone modifications that better distinguish active enhancers. “H2B, or not H2B, that is the question!” Enhancer elements […]
Supercharge your DNA Methylation Analysis with the New 900K EPIC v2 MicroarrayApril 17, 2023Some say the bigger the better, while others believe it’s what you do with it that counts! Now, a study reports that the most recent iteration of EPIC DNA methylation (900K EPIC v2) microarrays – which supercharges your insight by taking in both many more informative CpGs and additional chromatin features – supports the efficient […]
Racing to Identify Novel Imprinted Genes in the RatApril 17, 2023While some research develops at “a snail’s pace,” other projects “canter” along briskly; however, a recent study moved faster than a rat up a drainpipe, with a cross-country team leaving their mark on the “rat race” by successfully identifying novel imprinted genes and highlighting the rapid evolution of imprinting in this vital model animal. A […]
Online Learning: Rinnformatics – Genome Informatics Classes for EveryoneApril 14, 2023If you’ve ever wanted to develop informatics skills to analyze sequencing data, but weren’t sure where to start, then we have the place for you! We found this fantastic resource built by Dr. John Rinn and his lab at the University of Colorado – Boulder. It’s a free, online series of courses that give you […]
Building Layers of Epigenome and Transcriptome Spatial Information in Single CellsMarch 27, 2023Layers make things a lot more interesting—a cake with chocolate, vanilla and strawberry layers is much more decadent than a single-tier vanilla one. And now the labs of Rong Fan (Yale University), Gonçalo Castelo-Branco (Karolinska Institute), and Yanxlang Deng (now at University of Pennsylvania) have put the icing on the cake with a new paper […]
H3K4 Methylation Loss Makes RNAPII Pause for ThoughtMarch 27, 2023With mice with two dads, crystal clear images of dying stars, and the rise of ChatGPT being daily news items, does anything make you “pause for thought” these days? A stunning study from reflective researchers just might! They provide insight into an epigenetic enigma surrounding the transcriptional role of a histone modification by reporting how […]
SiTomics Captures Site-Specific Dynamic Histone Modifications, Proteome and Genome Changes In the WildMarch 22, 2023Don’t you wish you could just look into the nucleus of a cell and watch what’s happening? With SiTomics, Peng Chen’s lab (Peking University) gets close—they can see what modifications are being placed on a particular histone, what proteins bind to it, and where that histone is on the DNA, all in living cells. To do […]
One-Stop Sequencing: Simultaneous Genetic and Epigenetic InformationMarch 2, 2023Some shoppers like to browse several stores, whereas others follow the Amazon approach and want to just visit one place to buy everything on their list. The lab of Shankar Balasubramanian’s (University of Cambridge) must be in that second group because they developed a sequencing method that is a true one-stop extravaganza. It rings up […]
DNA Methylation Editing Provides Evidence for Transgenerational Epigenetic Inheritance in MammalsFebruary 26, 2023While we have become familiar with the link between DNA methylation and disease, an exciting epigenetic editing study now reports how DNA methylation contributes to transgenerational epigenetic inheritance in mammals and influences disease-associated traits across generations! In their previous study, a talented team led by Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte at the Salk Institute for Biological […]