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Targeting epigenetic mechanisms to advance pharmacological treatments for alcoholism

Abusive alcohol drinking considerably impacts human health. Alcoholism, better defined as Alcohol Use Disorders (AUD), includes a group of pathological entities related to alcohol-induced damage.

1 Apr 2021

Researchers program genome tool to target specific histone proteins

If finding a needle in a haystack is hard enough, then one should try finding a particular molecule on the needle.

11 Feb 2021

LEAFY protein licenses cell reprogramming to floral fate

Cells don't express all the genes they contain all the time. The portion of our genome that encodes eye color, for example, doesn't need to be turned on in liver cells. In plants, genes encoding the structure of a flower can be turned off in cells that will form a leaf.

28 Jan 2021

Researchers use heat map data to reverse engineer chromosome models

Genome analysis can provide information on genes and their location on a strand of DNA, but such analysis reveals little about their spatial location in relation to one another within chromosomes -- the highly complex, three-dimensional structures that hold genetic information.

15 Jan 2021

New model helps assess the effect of epigenetic changes on gene expression

Researchers have developed a mathematical model to quantitatively assess the impacts of particular epigenetic changes on the transcription rates.

11 Dec 2020

Glyphosate could be used as biomarkers to predict incurring diseases in future generations

Exposure to the widely used weed-killer glyphosate makes genetic changes to rats that can be linked to increased disease in their grandchildren and great-grandchildren, a new study has found.

10 Dec 2020

Repair proteins can help healthy cells to avoid damage during cancer therapy

A key way radiation therapy and chemotherapy work is by making highly lethal double-strand breaks in the DNA of cancer cells.

10 Dec 2020

DNA structural changes play key role in the recovery phase after DNA damage

A research team from Cologne has discovered that a change in the DNA structure - more precisely in the chromatin - plays a decisive role in the recovery phase after DNA damage. The key is a double occupation by two methyl groups on the DNA packaging protein histone H3 (H3K4me2).

15 Oct 2020

Novel mechanism restores cell function after DNA damage

Scientists have found that a modification in the DNA structure— specifically in the chromatin—plays a key role in the recovery stage following DNA damage.

15 Oct 2020

Researchers identify mechanism that silences “parasitic” DNA-elements in pluripotent stem cells

Every eukaryotic organism contains the so-called transposons, which are abundant DNA-elements.

13 Oct 2020

Epigenetic alterations drive late-onset Alzheimer's disease

New findings suggest that late-onset Alzheimer's Disease is driven by epigenetic changes -- how and when certain genes are turned on and off -- in the brain. Results were published today in Nature Genetics.

29 Sep 2020

New study shows how tumor cells evade the immune system

If cancer is a series of puzzles, a new study pieces together how several of those puzzles connect to form a bigger picture.

3 Sep 2020

Drugs designed to lower alpha-ketoglutarate levels could help fight DIPG tumors

Every year, 150 to 300 children in the United States are diagnosed with diffuse intrinsic pontine gliomas (DIPGs), aggressive and lethal tumors that grow deep inside the brain, for which there are no cures.

19 Aug 2020

Genetic analysis reveals the inhibitory role of NSD2 enzyme in cellular senescence

Using a detailed genetic analysis, a research team from Japan-based Kumamoto University has discovered that the NSD2 enzyme, which controls the actions of several genes, also functions to block the aging of cells.

10 Aug 2020

Study uncovers molecular mechanism of metabolite-mediated epigenome involved in organismal aging

Scientists have recently demonstrated that acetyl-CoA connects mitochondrial stress to the nuclear epigenome through the NuRD complex.

4 Aug 2020

New tool predicts and identifies novel genes involved in various biological processes

Chromatin plays a significant role in the silencing and activation of gene transcription, and establish the fate of the cells during development.

30 Jul 2020

Lessons from early embryo could increase the efficiency of cell reprogramming

Cell reprogramming provides an outstanding opportunity for the artificial generation of stem cells for regenerative medicine approaches in the clinic.

7 Jul 2020

Study reveals how and where cells suppress transcription across the whole genome

All life depends on a genome, which acts as an instruction manual for building all the products essential for development and survival. But knowing which of these individual instructions - or genes - need to be read, and when, is key for a properly functioning organism: so how does life get this right?

1 Jul 2020

Study uncovers why developing nerve cells take a wrong turn

A group of scientists from CECAD, the Cluster of Excellence 'Cellular Stress Responses in Aging-Associated Diseases,' have found a mechanism by which neurodevelopmental diseases concerning neurons can be explained: The loss of a certain enzyme, UBE2K, impeded the differentiation of stem cells by silencing the expression of genes important for neuronal differentiation and, therefore, the development and generation of neurons.

4 Jun 2020

Biochemical and computational methods for large-scale protein-arginine methylation analysis

Methylation (namely addition of a methyl group) of arginine amino acid residues of proteins is a post-translational modification (PTM) catalyzed by a family of nine enzymes called Protein Arginine Methyl-Transferases (PRMTs).

23 May 2020