Epigenetics goes Viral: Herpes the Histone HijackerJuly 25, 2013By the age of 40 most of us will be infected with human cytomegalovirus (hCMV), which is a human herpes virus. Pretty scary, eh? But fear not, hCMV infections are usually harmless. However, it still posses a significant public health risk as the virus remains the leading infectious cause of birth defects and a serious […]
CRISPRi: The User-Friendly Transcriptional RepressorJuly 25, 2013Usually when you think of the immune system it isn’t at the level of our bacterial friends. But “prokaryotes have evolved diverse RNA-mediated systems that use short CRISPR RNAs (crRNAs) and Cas (CRISPR-associated) proteins to detect and defend against invading DNA elements” This system, also known as the CRISPR/Cas system, is a prokaryotic immune system […]
How Active are Your HDACs? Abcam HDAC & SIRT Activity Assay KitsJuly 25, 2013Based on their booming popularity lately, it seems that histone deacetylases (HDACs) and sirtuins (SIRTs) lead pretty active epigenetic lives. As the experiments continue, there are several reasons why the epigenetics research community would want to keep tabs on what HDACs and SIRTs are doing including: Assessing HDAC or SIRT purification Screening for HDAC/SIRT inhibitors […]
Epigenetics: Damage Control in the Cell with Dr. Jim HaberJuly 25, 2013Dr. Haber discusses how normal cells deal with DNA damage and genomic integrity; and how those systems go awry in cancer cells. Epigenetics: Damage Control in the Cell Well, I work in an area of DNA repair. And what we have come to realize over the last decade is how these repair mechanisms prevent cells […]
Vitamin C in Media Critical for ES Cell 5hmCJuly 24, 2013Whether its pop culture (like the ongoing royal baby mania) or cell culture, there’s no denying the enormous impact that ‘media’ has on our life. In fact, new evidence shows that a little Vitamin C in cell culture media can influence mouse embryonic stem (ES) cells, like typical pre-teens, to undergo a blastocyst-like identity crisis. […]
