A DNA Methylation Based Allergy Test is Nothing to Sneeze AtJanuary 14, 2014Putting the Polar Vortex’s deep freeze behind us, we can start looking forward to Spring and all it’s environmental luxuries, like sunshine, blooming flowers…and allergies. Seasonal hayfever is a fact of life for many, but scientists have now developed a way to use DNA methylation in CD4+ T-Cells to predict who’s at risk. According to […]
DNA Methylation: The Original Anti-Virus ProgramJanuary 8, 2014Security and anti-virus software is a must-have accessory for the internet age, but it turns out that DNA methylation has been protecting us all from retroviral infections for quite a bit longer than any computer program. A talented research team lead by Richard Meehan from the University of Edinburgh (Scotland) applied HELP-seq analysis and DNA methylation […]
Tet Finally Gets Caught in the DNA Demethylation ActJanuary 8, 2014If a picture is worth 1,000 words, then X-ray crystallography is more like a Game of Thrones novel. The same technology that gave us the double helix structure of DNA way back in the groovy days of genetics has now captured images of Tet doing its demethylation dance with DNA in Naegleria. Xiaodong Cheng and […]
Decrypting Transcription with Dr. Frank GrosveldJanuary 7, 2014Dr. Frank Grosveld points out how little we actually know about the details of transcription and the molecular machinery involved. Transcription Factories We have this loop structure of the genome. And at the same time, we know that every gene that’s being transcribed, that’s active, is part of what we call transcription factories. So […]
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 […]