Monthly Archives: June 2011

Regenerative Medicine: Using Adult Stem Cells to Regenerate Human Organs

Posted on June 24, 2011 by Nicole Kelesoglu

Recently, I visited the Chihuly glass art exhibit at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. Seeing Dale Chihuly’s work for the first time, is like the first time you see the Grand Canyon. It’s breathtaking!  You have to see one of his towers in person, made up of hundreds of boldly colored glass spikes, to fully appreciate them. Interestingly, the tower I saw was reassembled for the new exhibit location, without instructions for identical structure. Each glass spike is NOT numbered for placement. Rather, the assemblers work to approximate the intended shape, gaging the spikes for size, color and direction, ultimately creating the intended overall pattern, albeit uniquely expressed. The process reminded me a bit of how stem cells can … Continue reading →

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Born This Way, With the Help of Incomplete Transcriptional Regulation

Posted on June 17, 2011 by Chris Womack

Looking through research on epigenetics and phenotype, I stumbled on a new way that epigenetics might keep some identical twins from really looking the same, even when they’re young. And some fat, inbred mice too. Seriously. For at least 50 years, genetics researchers have had this problem where no matter how well experiments test rats, mice, and other mammals under identical genetic and environmental circumstances, about 70 to 80 percent of the critters’ measurable, physical variability remains unexplained. And these are some inventive folks — they’ve tried inbreeding rats until they’re genetically nearly the same, they’ve tried standardizing rat husbandry, and so on. Still, the great majority of rats show this “intangible variance,” as that linked 1960 study called it. … Continue reading →

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Pondering the Evolution of E. coli (0104:H4)

Posted on June 13, 2011 by Nicole Kelesoglu

The trace back investigation in europe appears to have determined the source of the outbreak of the hemorrhagic colitis and hemolytic uremic syndrome causing E.coli strain (0104:H4). Organic bean sprouts are the culprit and the farm field has been identified. This Reuters report makes an interesting point about organic farming.  Regardless, identifying the source is a critical step in stopping an outbreak. For long term planning, we need science that establishes how a pathogenic E. coli strain like this evolves.  That way, chinks in the armor can be identified. Epigenetics has a role to play in the evolution of bacterial virulence factors. It allows the bacteria to respond to various environments faster than by the process of genetic mutations alone. … Continue reading →

Posted in Evolutionary Epigenetics, Gene Silencing, Methylation, Microbial Epigenetics | Tagged | Leave a comment

New iPad App: Histone Mods in a Handbag

Posted on June 10, 2011 by Chris Womack

The Apple iTunes website says this free Interactive Histone Modifications iPad app has been out since late April, but it looks like Millipore didn’t publicize it until early this month. It’s pretty cool, so I’d hate to overlook it. According to the company, the app maps all kinds of data to conceptual images of histones and their constituent parts, such as the pictures to the sides here. By selecting, say Lys119 on H2A, a user can learn about its known modifications, find supporting references, and get a list of relevant antibodies, modifying enzymes, and other reagents. So far the app is getting good reviews, but it’s still brand new. But again, it’s free. Keep in mind that it only runs … Continue reading →

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The Biggest Little Methylome Study in the World: 1,505 CpG Sites in 1,628 Samples

Posted on June 3, 2011 by Chris Womack

A big research group working with Spain’s Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute just published its study of 1,505 CpG sites in each of 1,628 human tissue samples, which naturally included various types of cancer cells and stem cells, as well as cells from people with cardiovascular, neurological, and autoimmune diseases. Published online in Genome Research by investigators at the Epigenetics and Cancer Biology Program of the Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute—IDIBELL—in Barcelona, Spain, the study is not a full accounting of each CpG site in the genome—it’s a broad look at a collection of sites across a lot of tissues from many different people. It’s a big pile of data that probably still contains several buried gems. And one interesting result is … Continue reading →

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