January 2015 | What is Epigenetics?

The Impact of Concussions on Epigenetics

January 28, 2015 Fides Lay

America’s biggest sporting event, Super Bowl Sunday, is an unofficial national holiday when friends, family, and occasionally strangers feast and gather in front of the television to watch two professional football teams battle for a championship. For days before and after, conversations in the classrooms or offices across the country would revolve around the match-up, the commercials, or the halftime show – and everyone, a football fan or not, would have an opinion. Often unmentioned, however, is the darker side [more…]

Epigenetic Changes Result from Breathing in Diesel Exhaust

January 20, 2015 Bailey Kirkpatrick

New research exposes the epigenetic changes and harmful consequences that can occur as a result of exposure to diesel exhaust fumes. Researchers at the University of British Columbia and Vancouver Coastal Health have found that breathing in diesel exhaust fumes can lead to changes in DNA methylation levels, switching on and off certain genes. Diesel exhaust is given off when an engine burns diesel fuel and, according to the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, “is a complex mixture of [more…]

Reduced Representation Bisulfite Sequencing and Post-Bisulfite DNA Library Preparation

Simple Tweak Could Make Post-Bisulfite Library Preparation Suitable for RRBS

January 13, 2015 M.C. Williams

The concept of DNA library preparation after bisulfite conversion of DNA was originally introduced by Miura et al. (Nucleic Acids Res. 2012) and commercial products for post-bisulfite library preparation were first developed by Epigentek (EpiNext kit) and Epicentre (EpiGnome kit) in 2013, in order to increase sensitivity and reduce sample loss. The major application of post-bisulfite library preparation is whole genome bisulfite sequencing (WGBS) but, with just a slight change to the protocol, this method could also be used for reduced representation [more…]

Epigenetic changes like DNA methylation occur to skeletal muscles after endurance training

Epigenetics of Skeletal Muscle Altered by Endurance Training

January 6, 2015 Bailey Kirkpatrick

We all know that exercise is good for us, but researchers at the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden are exploring the epigenetic impact good exercise has on our skeletal muscles. We have previously touched on the effects of epigenetic changes on the development of diseases such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease. In a recent study in Epigenetics, long-term endurance training has been shown to affect the epigenetic pattern present in the human skeletal muscle. The changed epigenetic patterns were shown to [more…]

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