Latest Methylation Stories

Alterations to the "on-off" switches of genes occur early in the development of prostate cancer and could be used as biomarkers to detect the disease months or even years earlier than current approaches, a Mayo Clinic study has found. These biomarkers — known as DNA methylation profiles — also can predict if the cancer is going to recur and if that recurrence will remain localized to the prostate or, instead, spread to other organs. The study, published in the journal Clinical Cancer...

Lawson research provides new insight into disease pathology In a new study from Lawson Health Research Institute, Dr. Joseph Torchia has identified a new genetic pathway influencing the spread of cancer cells. The discovery of this mechanism could lead to new avenues for treatment. Regular cell division is regulated by methylation, a series of chemical changes. Methylation modifies DNA to ensure cells divide at a healthy, balanced rate. In cancer, the methylation process is unbalanced,...

Results suggest researchers implement careful quality control A team led by scientists at The Scripps Research Institute and the University of California (UC) San Diego has discovered a new type of dynamic change in human stem cells. Last year, this team reported recurrent changes in the genomes of human pluripotent stem cells as they are expanded in culture. The current report, which appears in the May 4, 2012 issue of the journal Cell Stem Cell, shows that these cells can also change...

A team of Stowers scientists defines biochemical crosstalk between DNA interacting proteins and their modifications When stretched out, the genome of a single human cell can reach six feet. To package it all into a tiny nucleus, the DNA strand is tightly wrapped around a core of histone proteins in repeating units—each unit known as a nucleosome. To allow access for the gene expression machinery the nucleosomes must open up and regroup when the process is complete. In the May 1, 2012,...

CARLSBAD, Calif., April 11, 2012 /PRNewswire-iReach/ -- RiboMed Clinical Services Laboratory (RCSL), a CLIA-certified subsidiary of RiboMed Biotechnologies, today announced the release of a multi-marker methylation prognostic test for grading gliomas, the most common type of brain cancer. The test robustly analyzes 8 genes for differential methylation on FFPE (Formalin Fixed Paraffin Embedded) tumor samples to determine the G-CIMP (Glioma CpG Island Methylation Phenotype) score. The...

In a new study, researchers at the Swedish medical university Karolinska Institutet have identified epigenetic changes – known as DNA methylation – in the blood of patients with schizophrenia. The researchers were also able to detect differences depending on how old the patients were when they developed the disease and whether they had been treated with various drugs. In the future this new knowledge may be used to develop a simple test to diagnose patients with schizophrenia....

Researchers at the University of California, Davis, have figured out how the human body keeps essential genes switched “on” and silences the vast stretches of genetic repeats and “junk” DNA. Frédéric Chédin, associate professor in the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, describes the research in a paper published today (March 1) in the journal Molecular Cell. The work could lead to treatments for lupus and other autoimmune diseases, by reversing the gene-silencing...

The domestication of chickens has given rise to rapid and extensive changes in genome function. A research team at Linköping University in Sweden has established that the changes are heritable, although they do not affect the DNA structure. Humans kept Red Junglefowl as livestock about 8000 years ago. Evolutionarily speaking, the sudden emergence of an enormous variety of domestic fowl of different colours, shapes and sizes has occurred in record time. The traditional Darwinian...

In a look at how major stressors during childhood can change a person's biological risk for psychiatric disorders, researchers at Butler Hospital have discovered a genetic alteration at the root of the association. The research, published online in PLoS ONE on January 25, 2012, suggests that childhood adversity may lead to epigenetic changes in the human glucocorticoid receptor gene, an important regulator of the biological stress response that may increase risk for psychiatric disorders....

Writing in the February 17, 2012 issue of the journal Cell, researchers at the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and the Toronto Western Research Institute peel away some of the enduring mystery of how zygotes or fertilized eggs determine which copies of parental genes will be used or ignored. In developing humans and other mammals, not all genes are created equal – or equally used. The expression of certain genes, known as...