The Chromatin Digest

Tag: long-form

  • Epigenetics Wrapped 2025

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    Isabella
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    Since it’s coming up to the end of the year, and since Spotify Wrapped came out the other week (despite it saying my listening age was 76!), I thought I’d do my own roundup of 10 exciting and impactful findings in epigenetics and -genomics published in 2025. Here goes! 1. A detailed, single-cell methylation map…

  • Switching memories on and off

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    Isabella
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    The Persistence of Memory by Salvador Dalí. Sourced from brushandbubbles.com under CC BY-NC 4.0. “Oh Science and Progress! / You great big wonderful world! Oh what have you done?” – Sir John Betjeman, 1940 Ever find yourself randomly thinking about an embarrassing memory, something you said or did years ago, and wishing you could forget…

  • RNA previously dismissed as “noise” now shown to produce functional proteins

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    Isabella
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    Schematic of transcription regulation in mammalian cells. Enhancer RNAs (eRNAs) can be seen being transcribed from enhancers (yellow). Image from Bernstein0275 on Wikipedia, under CC BY-SA 4.0. I have a confession! A few months ago, I started a post with the sentence: “Enhancers are non-coding elements which are littered throughout the mammalian genome.” – me,…

  • Folding under pressure: RNA looping as a novel epigenetic inheritance mechanism?

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    Isabella
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    An example of the different possible types of RNA secondary structures. Credit to Oregon State University, sourced from flickr.com under CC BY-SA 2.0. Most research into epigenetic inheritance – the transmission of traits from cell to cell without altering the DNA sequence – has focused on DNA and histone modifications. New evidence suggests, however, that RNAs,…

  • Scanning the developing chromatome

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    Isabella
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    The DNA-binding region of (human) SUV39H1, a key chromatin regulator identified by the authors with ChAC-DIA. Image from SINO Biological. Pluripotent stem cells (PSCs) exist in the embryo during early development and can develop into virtually any kind of cell in the body – pluripotent literally means “many-powered”. In the transition from early to late…

  • Biologists discover how to make long distance work

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    Isabella
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    Long-range enhancer-promoter contacts work like power lines, connecting regions of the genome which are very far away from each other. Image from pixnio.com under CC PDM 1.0. Enhancers are non-coding elements which are littered throughout the mammalian genome. Enhancers form three-dimensional physical contacts with gene promoters, the sequence immediately upstream (before) the gene’s protein/RNA coding…

  • Crime and methylation

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    Isabella
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    Crime scene barrier. Image under Creative Commons license, sourced from hawkeyeforensic.com. From quitting smoking and drinking to avoiding specific foods, pregnant women are always advised to be in strict control of their physical health, as this directly impacts the health of the foetus. Foetal alcohol syndrome, for instance, results from excessive drinking during pregnancy. We…

  • The transcription factors behind my midweek meal

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    Isabella
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    Tomatoes at various ripening stages (this image is in the public domain). Not long ago, I took a short break from my MSc project to go back home and see my family for Easter. This meant using up all the food in my fridge before leaving, and I cooked up some pretty eclectic meals as…

  • How it all started, and where we are now

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    Isabella
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    On the evolution of epigenetics, both as a field and as a term (and my first post!) A diagram of a developing human embryo from a 1916 textbook (image is in the public domain). The meaning of words changes over time. “Awful”, for instance, used to mean “impressive”. Now it means quite the opposite. “Epigenetics”…