Tag Archives: histone acetylation

Canada Joins the International Human Epigenome Consortium – Q&A with Tomi Pastinen of Génome Québec

Posted on October 31, 2012 by Chris Womack

In an ambitious project investigating the interplay of environment, disease, and epigenetics, Canada is funneling $41 million into epigenomics research. It’s a multi-pronged effort to scrutinize a variety of tissue samples, disease states, and responses to environmental insults, so I called up Tomi Pastinen, the Canada research chair in human genetics, to learn more about the project. Here’s a lightly edited transcript of our conversation. But first, more about the project itself. It’s Canada’s entrée into the International Human Epigenome Consortium, and its announcement last week follows closely on the heels of last year’s launch of a European IHEC effort, BLUEPRINT (see our interview with the project’s Henk Stunnenberg here). While BLUEPRINT focused on blood epigenomes, which is common in … Continue reading →

Posted in Animal Models, Applications, DNA Methylation, Epigenome, Gene Regulation, Genomewide Methylation Profiling, Histone Modifications, Metabolism, Neuroscience, Next Gen Sequencing, Sodium Bisulfite Sequencing, Transcriptome | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Epigenetic Two-Punch Cancer Treatment from Johns Hopkins

Posted on November 18, 2011 by Chris Womack

The big news in epigenetics this week is a two-drug epigenetic combo that shows results as good as the best FDA-approved chemotherapy in fighting non-small cell lung cancer, which accounts for about 80 percent such cancers. But missing from a lot of the mainstream accounts, the related study took a look at blood-based biomarkers, finding that they might serve as good indicators of whether a patient’s responding to treatment. Conducted by Johns Hopkins University’s Rosalind Juergens and colleagues, the phase I/II trial appears to be the most successful study of an epigenetic treatment of a solid tumor. I say this all the time, but keep in mind we’re still talking about a small sample size–the researchers studied 45 patients taking … Continue reading →

Posted in Applications, DNA Methylation, Diagnostics, Histone Modifications, Methyltransferases, Personalized Medicine, Translational Research | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Q&A with BLUEPRINT’s Henk Stunnenberg on the New Leukemia, Blood Epigenome Project

Posted on October 7, 2011 by Chris Womack

The European Union’s $53.5 million, 4-year BLUEPRINT project launched this week with the ambitious goal of cataloging the epigenomes of 100 different cell types, with a focus on hematopoietic cells and leukemia disease states. The project is only the second such effort associated with the International Human Epigenome Consortium—the first being the U.S. National Institutes of Health’s Roadmap Epigenomics Mapping Consortium—and it’s composed of 41 research entities, including university labs, research institutes, and drug and diagnostics companies. BLUEPRINT coordinator Henk Stunnenberg, a professor of molecular biology at the Radboud University Nijmegen in the Netherlands, says the project may publish early work as soon as a year from now, and that the epigenomes it uncovers have the potential to generate diagnostics … Continue reading →

Posted in Applications, Biomarkers, Chromatin Structure, DNA Methylation, Diagnostics, Gene Regulation, Histone Modifications, New Lab Methods, Next Gen Sequencing, Sodium Bisulfite Sequencing, Translational Research | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Eat Yourself Fitter? Diet, nutrition, and epigenetics.

Posted on April 12, 2011 by Chris Womack

Reader Della writes us on Twitter about two epigenetics tangents—diets for healthier gene expression and beliefs to hold (or “perceptions to gather,” I guess) for healthier gene expression. As it turns out, a few of us here at E3 were talking* about the epigenetics-diet connection too, so I’ll take a crack at the viewpoint in that Globe and Mail link above, which is based on this Clinical Epigenetics review by Syed Meeran and collegues at the University of Alabama. I’m sure we won’t neglect subject of epigenetics and beliefs for very long. The Globe and Mail article mentions the anti-cancer properties of broccoli, green tea, soy, grapes, tumeric, rosemary, and garlic. It also talks up the epigenetic benefits of a … Continue reading →

Posted in DNA Methylation, Gene Regulation, Histone Modifications, Nutrigenomics, Oncology | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Deacetylation Makes Sense

Posted on April 8, 2011 by Chris Womack

Using their new NET-seq technique in S. cerevisiae, Howard Hughes Medical Institute researchers recently found a new role for histone acetylation that adds yet another layer of complexity to RNA transcription regulation—local acetyl modifications apparently allow RNA polymerase to make anti-sense transcripts upstream of a gene, while the deacetylating enzyme complex Rpd3S keeps transcription going in the sense direction. Along with previous findings, the experiments demonstrate that “the primary function of the Rpd3S histone deacetylase complex seems to be to enforce promoter directionality,” write HHMI’s Stirling Churchman and Jonathan Weissman in the Jan. 20 Nature. The paper also provides in vivo support of earlier observations that RNA polymerase tends to pause at histones along a DNA template, giving cellular machinery … Continue reading →

Posted in Applications, Divergent Transcription, New Lab Methods, Non-coding RNA, microRNA | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment