One Man’s Junk DNA is Another’s Intronic microRNASeptember 3, 2013Introns have a bad rap these days. Sequestered with the rest of the (epi)genome in the term ‘junk’ DNA’; A reductionist way of describing 95% of our beloved genome as useless. But as new evidence keeps pointing out, introns and ‘non-coding’ regions actually code for most of the genomes products and/or function. In recently published […]
RRBS and 450k Arrays Face Off Over DNA Methylation AnalysisAugust 27, 2013DNA methylation has been a cornerstone of epigenetics research from the start, and the emergence of technologies that make investigation of the modification more accessible has only made the DNA methylation field even hotter. Several tools and techniques are available to assess DNA methylation levels, but two in particular, reduced representation bisulfite sequencing (RRBS) and […]
Webinar: Life Long Changes in DNA Methylation & ncRNAs in Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS)August 22, 2013Western University’s Ben Laufer (Ph.D. Candidate) discusses how bioinformatic software was used to establish that even moderate exposure to alcohol during pregnancy, equivalent to a few beers every now and then, can produce profound and heritable variations in development, behaviour, and learning that are maintained in the exposed fetus for a lifetime by altered epigenetic […]
R-loops: RNA-DNA Hybrids Making Noise on Silenced GenesAugust 21, 2013Prader-Willi syndrome and Angelman syndrome are like two-peas-in-a-pod, the textbook cases of the power of genomic imprinting. However, some consider them to be distinct genetic disorders that are grouped together, as Dr. Janine LaSalle (UC Davis) puts it; “Only because of the shared chromosomal location of deletions to 15q11-13 and ‘quirky’ oppositely imprinted inheritance patterns.” […]
MECP2 Therapy Deployed to Reverse Rett Syndrome SymptomsAugust 21, 2013They say that cats have nine lives. If that’s true then the idea of ‘Gene Therapy’ must be part feline. Despite several hurdles over the years, gene therapy once again captured the spotlight; this time by demonstrating that replacing mutated MECP2 can reverse the symptoms of Rett Syndrome in mice. The new research led by […]
