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Technique allows mapping of epigenetic information in single cells at scale
Decoding epigenomic information from individual cells from the mouse brain. Histones are attached to DNA as beads on a string, with different versions decorating the genome as “epigenetic stickers”, labelling which genes are turned on or off. The method single-cell CUT&Tag allows to examine tens of thousands of single cells at the same time to determine their histone profiles. Illustration by Amagoia Agirre.
Histones are tiny proteins that bind to DNA and hold information that can help turn on or off individual genes. Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have developed a technique that makes it possible to examine how different versions of histones bind to the genome in tens of thousands of individual cells simultanously. The technique was applied to the mouse brain and can be used to study epigenetics at a single-cell level in other complex tissues. The study is published in Nature Biotechno
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Advances in research on most general type of stem cells
Mouse embryo following injection of truly totipotent morula cells labeled in magenta. Morula cells are found shortly after an egg is fertilized. Credit: Eszter Posfai.
Stem cell research is the prerequisite for regenerative medicine, which with the help of the body’s cells recreates and heals important organs. Now, researchers at Karolinska Institutet, SickKids in Canada and KU Leuven in Belgium have found a method for defining the most general type of stem cells, that can develop into all cell types in the body. The study of totipotent stem cells in mice has been published in Nature Cell Biology.