Novel Primate- and Tissue Specific miRNAs with Dr Isidore RigoutsosMarch 17, 2015In this interview Dr Isidore Rigoutsos discusses his recent paper ‘Analysis of 13 cell types reveals evidence for the expression of numerous novel primate- and tissue-specific microRNAs‘ published in PNAS, February 2015. This paper shows the presence of many more miRNAs than previously thought and uncovers that the majority of these are in fact, cell-type […]
A cHi-C Way of Capturing Chromatin ConformationMarch 9, 2015Identifying cancer risk loci is like trying to find a key you lost somewhere in your apartment. You know that it’s there and by combining experience with indistinct recollection you can even narrow it down to a few square meters. Now imagine you not only have to find the key but also map all the […]
Gene Expression Comes Full CircRNAMarch 9, 2015Circular RNAs (circRNAs) are a diverse RNA species that regulate gene expression in some funky ways, like functioning as super absorbent miRNA sponges in mammalian cells. However, they also seem to be particularly relevant to the brain. Recent research adds a new function to this ‘outside of the box’ method of regulating gene expression by observing circRNAs […]
m6Ajor New Function for MicroRNAs in RNA MethylationFebruary 20, 2015It’s no secret that microRNAs are pretty busy molecules. A single microRNA can regulate the expression of several, maybe even hundreds, of transcripts. If that wasn’t enough, researchers at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing now add another function to this packed list of duties: the control of m6A RNA methylation, which is emerging as an […]
Expressed Long Non-coding RNAs Snitch on Tissue-specific EnhancersFebruary 11, 2015Predicting tissue-specific enhancers is a tricky business. While histone marks such as H3K4me1 and binding of p300 are good enhancer predictors, pointing out which enhancers are tissue-specific is more of a challenge. That is, of course, unless you have PreSTIGE – an algorithm developed by the Scacheri lab that identifies tissue-specific enhancers by combining H3K4me1 […]
From Neuron to Germline: Inheritance by Mobile RNAsFebruary 4, 2015We’ve got transgenerational epigenetic inheritance on the mind and now strangely enough it seems that the mind also causes transgenerational epigenetic inheritance?! Researchers have just shown the strangest case of inheritance yet: soma to germline. A talented team from the University of Maryland have been tracing double stranded RNA (dsRNA) in C. elegans and have made some interesting observations […]
Plotting the Path to Pluripotency Uncovers Key Role of DNA MethylationDecember 29, 2014If you’ve read our recent piece ‘Reprogramming Roadmap Reveals Fuzzy New Stem Cells‘ you’ll already know how “Project Grandiose” [1, 2], the brainchild of Andras Nagy, identified a new pluripotent state (the F-class stem cell). While the discovery of this new class is thrilling, the main purpose of this grand project was to uncover the […]
A “Grandiose” Project Provides a Fuzzy New Future for iPSC ResearchDecember 17, 2014Induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSCs) research burst on to the scene in 2006 with a paper which has since spawned thousands of studies and has proved to be a quantum leap for regenerative medicine. This reached a crescendo this year when a Japanese patient became the first recipient of retinal cells generated from iPSCs made […]
Vitamin C Promotes ESC Self-Renewal by Modulating miRNA ExpressionDecember 16, 2014We all know “an apple a day, keeps the doctor away”, but it requires a lot of discipline to ensure that our diet contains enough vitamins. This holds especially true for the daily vitamin C uptake. Unfortunately, humans (and – for some mysterious reason – guinea pigs) lost the ability to synthesize this now essential […]
Dynamic Pseudouridylation of ncRNA and mRNADecember 15, 2014Pseudouridine (Ψ) is not only the most abundant post-translational modification (PTM) of RNA in all organisms, but it is also amongst the first discovered, way back in the futuristic 50’s, where it was deemed the 5th nucleotide of RNA. Ψ doesn’t discriminate against cellular functions or evolutionary distinct species. And while studied intently in rRNA […]
