Monthly Archives: July 2011

Cytosine-Mod Mysteries Sort-of Solved? Disappearing Methyls and Regulatory 5-hmCs

Posted on July 29, 2011 by Chris Womack

Last week’s excitement about the discovery of “seventh” and “eighth” DNA bases might’ve obscured parts of that work that shed a little more light on a very murky corner of epigenetics’ cytosine modifications — “Where do the methyls go?” And related research also published last week gets a bit closer to answering, “What does 5-hydroxymethyl-C really do, anyway?” The first, a Science paper by Yi Zhang and his group at the University of North Carolina, does introduce two new cytosine modifications, 5-formylcytosine and 5-carboxylcytosine. But more interesting, I think, is that the group gets halfway through proving a plausible mechanism for cytosine demethylation, which no one’s demonstrated yet. And during the same week, researchers at UCLA and New England Biolabs … Continue reading →

Posted in Applications, DNA Methylation, Developmental Biology, Gene Regulation, Genomewide Methylation Profiling, Methyl-specific Antibodies, Methyltransferases, Methyltransferases | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Epigenetics Conference Networking

Posted on July 22, 2011 by Nicole Kelesoglu

Get yourself ready to be inspired by, and network with, leaders in the field. There are three upcoming epigenetic conference registration deadlines fast approaching! Be a tech savvy scientist while you are there. Set up a new group for any conference you attend under the E3 Community tab, then choose the Applications tab, then look right and click on Create. You can also use the E3 forum conference section to connect with your colleagues. It’s a personalized way to find a collaborator, or even a career opportunity. Epigenomics of Common Diseases will be held September 13th – 16th 2011, at the Wellcome Trust Conference Centre, Wellcome Trust Genome Campus, Hinxton, Cambridge, UK. Speakers include Steve Baylin of John Hopkins University, … Continue reading →

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Epigenetics and Genius

Posted on July 15, 2011 by Chris Womack

When Santiago Ramón y Cajal was 11, he blew up the town gate with a cannon he made. He was irascible, combative, and possibly a genius — at 54, he shared the 1906 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with rival Camillo Golgi for piecing together an early understanding of the nervous system. Still, Golgi believed the nervous system was all one connected “net,” and Ramón y Cajal fought for the view that it’s made of millions of interacting but separate cells. We’ve discovered several caveats, but Ramón y Cajal was pretty much right. He was right about a lot. So when Scientific American Mind asked its Twitter followers this week for geniuses its staff might’ve missed for a feature … Continue reading →

Posted in History & Trends | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Can Epigenetics Improve Forensic Science? : “Matters of Life, Liberty & Death”

Posted on July 8, 2011 by Nicole Kelesoglu

With the Casey Anthony case verdict, and recent capture of Whitey Bulger in the news, my attention is drawn to the important service forensic scientists do to society – promoting justice.  The National Academy of Sciences put out a report in 2009, Strengthening Forensic Science in the United States: A Path Forward. The report details the challenges faced in forensic science, and makes recommendations, which aim for universal standards and establishing best practice. The major challenge for forensic scientists analyzing DNA from a crime scene, is getting useful data from limited and poor quality samples. There are several research avenues where epigenetics can aid forensic science. While genetic information identifies an individual, the epigenetic information can add informative layers to … Continue reading →

Posted in Applications, DNA Methylation, Forensic genetics, Methylation Specific PCR, Next Gen Sequencing, Sodium Bisulfite Sequencing | 3 Comments

The Other Epigenetics Enthusiasts – the Meditators, et al.

Posted on July 1, 2011 by Chris Womack

Back in April, I mentioned the belief among some folks that healthier gene expression patterns were a matter of thinking or believing or perceiving things in a special way. Anyway, I said I’d get back to the subject, and here I am! After looking into it a bit more, it seems to me like epigenetics has two main groups of cheerleaders. There are the scientists and geeks like myself, and a second group made up of spiritualists or mysticists like Bruce Lipton. But no matter how much of it I read, I’m never quite sure what the mysticists find so interesting about epigenetics, nor whether they’re even talking about the same thing. ERV over at Science Blogs is somewhat less … Continue reading →

Posted in Applications | Tagged , , , | 8 Comments