Self Service Transcription Lane Now Open for miRNAsFebruary 2, 2010Many retailers have opened up self-service checkout lanes lately, which are great for those customers with just a few items, or don’t want to get stuck behind the old couple who still pays with paper checks. According to a recent report, when it comes to transcription, at least some miRNAs might have the option to […]
Cancer Suppression is a miR-200 Family ValueJanuary 21, 2010Cancer regulation and the miR-200 cluster has been a family affair for a while now. A new article from a group at The University of Arizona highlights a couple of family members, miR-200c and miR-141, (they must be the attention-starved middle children) and how epigenetic regulation of their expression differs in normal and cancer cells. […]
RIP-Chip Tears Into miRNP Complex AnalysisJanuary 6, 2010Solving the mysteries of miRNA:mRNA interactions has been a tough case to crack. Correlation studies, and miRNA target prediction algorithms point us in the right direction, but their indirect nature is a little like going to trial with only circumstantial evidence. Researchers from University of Kentucky published a new paper demonstrating how RIP-Chip techniques can […]
Developing Technologies for Improved In Vivo Epigenetic Imaging/AnalysisDecember 15, 2009The NIH is opening up its wallet again for epigenetic technology development. $3.5M will be allocated in 2010 for developing in vivo epigenetic imaging and analysis technologies. According to the grant description, the NIH has recognized that “… the technologies available to determine the epigenetic state of tissues in vivo are extremely limited. The specific […]
LNA miR-122 Inhibitors Put HCV in Lockdown in vivoDecember 3, 2009miR-122 is a talented regulator. Sure it can negatively regulate gene expression by binding 3’ UTRs of target mRNAs, but it’s also shown that it can bind 5’ UTRs in the HCV genome just as well, and act as a positive regulator, giving the virus a hand with replicating its genome. Facilitating viral replication? Well, […]
Pre-miRNA Importin and Exportin Strong As EverDecember 2, 2009In today’s global economy, imports and exports can ebb and flow dramatically depending on economic conditions. But in the fine-tuned cellular economy, where supply-demand runs the show, miRNA Importin and Exportin operate with consistency that would have most economists envious. When pre-miRNAs are shipped from the nucleus to the cytoplasm. Exportin-5 escorts the ~65 nt […]
Got miR-2861? Novel miRNA Is Linked to OsteoporosisNovember 18, 2009What can you do to keep your bones healthy and strong? In addition to sporting the ever-trendy milk mustache, you might want to avoid mutations in miR-2861, a newly discovered miRNA involved in osteoblast differentiation. A team of Chinese researchers identified miR-2861 by cloning miRNAs from primary mouse osteoblasts (the cells responsible for bone formation). […]
Sopping Up Regulatory Insights with miRNA SpongesNovember 17, 2009We’ve all seen those household cleaning commercials on the tele that show a super detergent that cuts through grease, whitens whites, and zaps pet odor effortlessly, so when we first got wind of miRNA sponges a few years back (Nature Methods, August 2007), we remember being interested but skeptical. But, if these vector-driven miRNA inhibitors […]
The Dark-side of Being a Regulatory Star: miRNA Labeling and ManipulationNovember 11, 2009It wasn’t that long ago when cellular miRNAs lived under the radar. They went to work on their targets each day and hung out with other members of the extended RISC family. Their small size and lack of poly-A tails may have kept them out of the spotlight for decades, but the last few years […]
Comparing Long ncRNAs lincRNAsNovember 11, 2009Despite all of the attention to the non-coding transcriptome lately, our knowledge about what most long intergenic non-coding RNA (lncRNA) transcripts do – if indeed they do anything at all, still has more holes than a Dunkin’ Donut shop. Luckily there are folks out there willing to step in to take on the dirty job […]
