The Chromatin Digest

Tag: short-form

  • Old proteins, new tricks

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    Isabella
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    In order to switch genes on and off, chromatin has to be opened and shut, enabling the DNA to become open to the whim of the rest of the nucleus for transcription. This is called chromatin remodelling, and it’s far from an easy task because our DNA is wrapped around huge protein complexes called nucleosomes.…

  • April-June 2026: Research Roundup

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    Isabella
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    Hey everyone! After some time away, I thought I should start doing quarterly summaries of recent epigenetics news — short and to the point! April: CRISPR gets its latest upgrade CRISPR-Cas9 complexes have been incredibly useful for editing the genome, however they tend to barge in and make edits/cuts regardless of methylation. A new modified…

  • Stressed cells offload damaged DNA to their neighbours

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    Isabella
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    During cellular stress, cells bundle broken DNA into micronuclei, which are then shuttled through microscopic tubes like a train travelling through a tunnel. Picture from here, under CC BY 2.0. DNA is precious; without it, our cells would not be able to survive. As such, it’s kept safely within the confines of the nucleus. The…

  • Call for Submissions: Guest Blog Series 2026!

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    Isabella
    in ,

    The Chromatin Digest is open to submissions for a Guest Blog Series! 🙂 UPDATE 18/04/26: Submissions will be accepted beyond Friday 24th April 2026, and will be uploaded on a rolling basis. Thank you! If you’re interested in scientific writing, have some fascinating research to share, or a story you wish to tell, I would…

  • Should we rethink the histone code?

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    Isabella
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    Histone modifications and their conventional notation. From Fig. 1 of Turner, 2005. “Dream of complications / On and on / That’s how my observation tends” – Interpol, “Complications” off their 2018 album, Marauder I was reading a paper earlier and the tiniest thing jumped out at me: the histone modification H3K27me3 written inversely as me3K27H3.…

  • Lingering epigenetic signatures may underlie weight regain

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    Isabella
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    The “yo-yo” effect: even after losing weight, it can be easily regained. Image from Enrique Calabuig on Flickr.com, under CC BY-SA 2.0. Individuals with obesity frequently regain lost weight over time, even following long-term intervention or surgery. However, due to the challenges of working with human fat tissue at a single-cell level, the cellular mechanisms…