miRNAs Duped by Pseudogene DecoysJune 23, 2010Wouldn’t we all like to have a decoy, a look-alike who could stand in for us during life’s unpleasant moments? You know, like being forced to watch the “Dancing with the Stars” finale, or standing in line for 6+ hours at the DMV? A research effort spear-headed by Laura Poliseno at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical […]
miRNAs Enlist in Fight Against H1N1 InfectionJune 22, 2010During last year’s pandemic, the H1N1 Influenza A Virus made itself a bigger nuisance than a stadium full of vuvuzelas at a World Cup match, and so the rush began to figure out how to stop it in its tracks. In a new Journal of Virology paper, investigators have discovered that a handful of cellular […]
Worming Your Way to Longer Life Through Histone DemethylationJune 22, 2010Life’s tough when you’re a C. elegans worm. You hatch, you molt, you reproduce (usually with yourself), and then you die, all within 2–3 weeks. But a talented team of researchers at Stanford has found a way to keep worms wriggling long after they normally go to the great compost heap in the sky. Stanford’s […]
Nucleosome Dynamics: CATCH-IT if You CanJune 9, 2010Since our interview last year with Steve Henikoff, in which we discussed his Roadmap Epigenomics R21 grant, we’ve been itching to learn all the details of his new method for studying nucleosome turnover. On May 28, our wait was finally over with the debut of the CATCH-IT (covalent attachment of tags to capture histones and […]
Fun, Sun and MethylationJune 8, 2010Summertime is here, and that means that we’ll all be spending more time outdoors and in the sun. But, while you are out there doing your best to get as tan as the cast of Baywatch, some new details about how age and sun exposure can change your skin’s DNA methylation patterns may make you […]
