Headlines Archives - EpiGenie | Epigenetics, Stem Cell, and Synthetic Biology News

Headlines

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.

Search Articles

Environmental Epigenetics Timeline

February 11, 2014

Thanks to growing interest from the general public, environmental epigenetics is a red-hot topic with no signs of cooling off anytime soon. We’ve certainly covered our fair share of research with an environmental slant to it, so if you want to review, research, or just plain get up to speed on the subject, these articles […]

SIRT1, miR-34a Clear Out the JNK from Fatty Livers

February 11, 2014

When it comes to liver disease, it seems most of the attention (and research) goes to the variety that is associated with the consumption of alcohol. While that’s a big concern for those of us enjoy the occasional adult beverage, it’s left non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) under-studied. But now that’s changing. According to Rui […]

Capture-C Catches Chromatin Contortions

February 5, 2014

Chromosome Conformation Capture (3C) is a cool technique that has lead to more spin-offs than the CSI TV franchise. This technique has been used at enhancers, silencers, boundary elements, and promoters at the individual loci level. But now a cunning team of researchers from Oxford University (UK) have just shown how to take it to an ‘omic level’. Here’ […]

World’s First CRISPR Monkeys

February 5, 2014

The Crispr/Cas9 genetic engineering system has gotten a lot of buzz lately for its potential in epigenetic editing and now a team of researchers in China have just made a huge breakthrough, using the technique to create genetically engineered monkeys. The scientists approach was to inject an engineered bacterial immune system (known as CRISPR/Cas9) into one-cell-stage […]

Webinar: Mechanisms of Epigenetic Regulation in Stem Cells and Development

January 31, 2014

Dr. Alexander Meissner discusses the roles of epigenetic mechanisms in stem cells and development. Cytosine methylation in mammals is an epigenetic modification that is largely restricted to CpG dinucleotides and serves multiple critical functions including stable repression of target promoters, maintaining genomic integrity, establishing parent-specific imprinting patterns, and silencing endogenous retrotransposon activity. In somatic tissues, […]

Up In Smoke: Nicotine’s Epigenetic Consequences

January 22, 2014

As anyone who has tried to kick a pack-a-day cigarette habit can attest, nicotine is bad news. The jitters and surly attitude are bad enough, but according to a new investigation, fetal nicotine exposure also does some pretty insidious epigenetic damage. Daniel Hardy and a talented team Western University (Canada) have revealed a chromatin mechanism that […]

Methylation Separates Men from Monkeys

January 21, 2014

While we may share ‘99% of our genes’ with chimps, some cutting edge research has shown that when it comes to evolution, taking the stance of pure genetic determinism may just make a monkey out of you. The gene bringing today’s lesson? CNTNAP2, one of nature’s largest, with a role in human-specific language abilities and […]

The Next Steps in Chromatin Contact Analysis with Dr. Gerd Blobel

January 20, 2014

Dr. Gerd Blobel discusses emerging techniques for visualizing the interactions of RNAs and chromatin. The Future of Chromatin Contact Analysis So there are other approaches that people are taking, which is: you use FISH, for example, Fluorescent In Situ Hybridization. And this is a method that can be used to validate interactions that have been […]

Choline Metabolism, DNA Methylation, and Memory with Dr. Steven Zeisel

January 20, 2014

Dr. Steven Zeisel discusses how maternal intake of choline effects DNA methylation during development, and can lead to better memory. This interview was shot at the Keystone Symposia’s meeting on Nutrition, Epigenetics and Human Disease, 2013 held in Santa Fe, New Mexico Choline Metabolism, DNA Methylation, and Memory So I’m more and more believing that epigenetics […]

Epigenetic Love Triangle of Testicular Cancer

January 20, 2014

Politics makes for strange bedfellows, and now it seems, so does testicular cancer. According to recent research, a trio of vastly different mechanisms all contribute to a carcinogenic epigenetic chain of events involving DNAm, retroviruses, and PIWI/piRNA machinery. PIWI proteins are an Argonaute family protein subclass and have little RNA buddies known as small regulatory PIWI-interacting […]