Decitabine Scores a Cancer Therapy ‘Hat Trick’January 7, 2014The cancer treatment field scored a nice win to kick off 2014. Past studies have hinted that epigenome modifying drugs show great potential in the clinic, but new findings from Kunle Odunsi and team at the Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, New York has demonstrated that a combinatorial approach using Decitabine (a DNA ‘demethylater’) and […]
Chromatin Interaction Analysis is All About TimingJanuary 3, 2014Formaldehyde treatment is a popular way to cross-link proteins and DNA during Chromatin Immunoprecipitation (ChIP), an assay that has been widely used to characterize protein-DNA interactions. Now, a team from University of Virginia Health System has enhanced this time-tested formaldehyde fixation approach to understand how fast/slow proteins bind to DNA and the stability of chromatin […]
Get Yourself a New Epigenetics Job at AbcamDecember 18, 2013Abcam is now recruiting for a new Scientific Support Senior Specialist – Epigenetics. We’ve worked at and with a number of companies in the epigenetics space and we can’t say enough good things about Abcam. Plus…Cambridge (UK) is an amazing town with a rich history, a bustling academic environment and most important, a ton of […]
Epigenetics 101: You Can’t Always Blame Your Parents with Alberto PerezDecember 17, 2013EpiGenie reader Dr. Albert Perez lays out some of the basic concepts behind epigenetics, and explains how being a red-head in Spain started him on a path to explore DNA and the epigenome.
DNA Methylation and Diet: You Are Also What Your Father AteDecember 17, 2013Freud famously blamed mothers for nearly everything, and when early epigenetic studies indicated that you are what your mom (and grandma and great-grandma) ate, it seemed to back him up. But when it comes to complex traits and environment, a new report from scientists at McGill University (Montreal) found that a father’s diet shapes a child too. […]
Tet1 Demethylation Wipes the Genomic Imprinting Slate CleanDecember 12, 2013The mechanisms surrounding genomic imprinting has always been a bit of black-box, especially when it comes to the erasure of paternal methylation patterns. A recent study led by Yi Zhang at the Boston Children’s Hospital has made a breakthrough in our understanding of imprinting, showing that Tet1 is a major part of the clean-up crew […]
Promega SIRT-Glo™ Assays Illuminate the Search for SirtuinsDecember 11, 2013Sirtuins (SIRTs) sure seem to getting around. These energetic class III HDAC enzymes have their fingerprints on everything from Alzheimer’s to Inflammation, generating enough spotlight (and even a little controversy) to make even Kanye West a feel little jealous. Promega’s new SIRT-Glo™ Assays and Screening Systems are the latest tool to help researchers study the […]
Zymo Research and Active Motif Get Props from JournalistasDecember 11, 2013Our sources report that some good friends, and fellow epigenetics advocates have been getting kudos from the scientific press. Both Zymo Research and Active Motif each garnered some well-deserved recognition recently for their contributions to the field of epigenetics research, and we thought it was only right to join in on the praise. Zymo Research […]
Spotlight on Emerging RNA Methylation Analysis TechniquesDecember 9, 2013Taking cues from ultra-talented entertainers like Justin Timberlake, methylation is out to prove it’s possible to be successful in more than just one medium. Recent research has found that methylation can pull off its’ gene expression regulatory magic at the level of RNA too. And no, we’re not talking about other RNA modifications, like 6-methyladenosine […]
Long Intergenic Non-Coding RNAs, One of Life’s Bare EssentialsDecember 4, 2013If you were forced to choose a few bare essentials for a lengthy stay on a deserted island, most of us would choose items like some great tunes, a favorite book, or a loved one, but some new research points out that lincRNAs ought to be considered too, since a clever crew at Harvard has recently […]