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November, 2007	WEBCAST: Epigenetics - Playing the Genetic Score
	Epigenetics is challenging long-held notions that our genes are our destiny and radically changing the way researchers think about the development of certain illnesses. As science come to understand the way epigenetic processes silence genes, it is given rise to promising new therapies for diseases such as MDS. -The Journal of Life Sciences, Sponsored by Pharmion
August, 2007	UCSF Scientists Aim to Use Saliva to Detect Oral Cancers
	Could scrutiny of spit save your life? Cancer researchers may soon know the answer. More than 30,000 new cases of oral cancer are diagnosed each year in the US alone, many when it’s too late to prevent death. Dentists and hygienists find oral cancers during exams, but researchers at UCSF now are developing ways to detect cancers earlier — before tumors become visible to the naked eye.To do so they are examining telltale proteins in saliva. -Rachel Tompa, UCSF Today, August 21, 2007
February, 2007	'Asterisks' in the DNA
	What makes you different from everyone else on the planet may have less to do with the spelling of your genetic code than with a scattering of chemical "tags" that, like censor's marks, render some of your genes unreadable. The code itself, after all, is 99.9 percent identical in all of us, so these peripheral elements - referred to as epigenetics - offer a plausible reason human beings come in such a variety of shapes and sizes. -Faye Flam, The Philadelphia Inquirer, February 12, 2007
January, 2007	Scientists discover stage at which cells are fated to become stem cells
	Cambridge scientists have discovered the stage at which some of the cells of a fertilised mammalian egg are fated to develop into stem cells and why this occurs. The findings of the study, which overturn the long-held belief that cells are the same until the fourth cleavage (division) of the embryo, are reported in this week's edition of Nature. -University of Cambridge, January 13, 2007 You can link to the primary research article here.
January, 2007	Study Supports A Stem Cell Origin Of Cancer
	Researchers at the University of Southern California (USC) recently made significant strides toward settling a decades-old debate centering on the role played by stem cells in cancer development. According to the study's findings, which appear in an upcoming issue of Nature Genetics and now available online, genes that are reversibly repressed in embryonic stem cells are over-represented among genes that are permanently silenced in cancers; this link lends support to the increasingly discussed theory that cancer is rooted in small populations of stem cells. -Medical News Today, January 11, 2007 You can link to the primary research article here.
December, 2006	Scientists Developing Lung Cancer Breath Test
	A simple breath test could someday help predict who's at highest risk of getting lung cancer. In preliminary research, the breath test was successful in finding cancer "markers," said senior researcher Dr. Simon D. Spivack, a pulmonologist at the Wadsworth Center, the public health laboratory of the New York State Department of Health. That's important, he added, because "lung cancer [typically] exists for a decade or two before it is diagnosed." -Forbes.com, December 12, 2006 You can link to the primary research article here.
October, 2006	Cell Differentiation No Barrier to Cloning
	Dolly the cloned ewe has been at the center of controversy since she was announced to the world in 1997. Beneath the philosophical considerations, the science of the cloning feat--in particular the type of cell used to kick off the process--has been an issue of some debate. Some have argued that so-called adult stem cells--root cells in most tissue that kick into action to replace damaged tissue--must have been involved. But a new test in mice shows that adult stem cells are actually worse than regular cells for the purposes of cloning with current techniques. -David Biello, Scientific American, October 1, 2006 You can link to the primary research article here.
September, 2006	Learning without learning
	Freud was famously preoccupied with the influence of early childhood experiences on development. His theory of psychoanalysis, which provided a new approach to the analysis and treatment of abnormal adult behaviour, has attracted both ardent followers and fierce critics. According to this theory, the unconscious mind carries imprints of the past that mercilessly haunt the present. Unearthing those imprints is the key to understanding what is going on and then treating it. -The Economist, September 21, 2006 You can link to the primary research article here.
	Past Articles

The HhaI DNA Methyltranferase flips out its target cytosine by 180°
(Klimasauakas et al., 1994)