My lab is focused in part on chromatin states in stem cells and cancer including heterochromatin. In fact, my lab’s website is chromatin.com. Heterochromatin is dense, often inactive chromatin. By H&E staining and electron microscopy, heterochromatin looks dark compared to the rest of the nucleus, largely composed of euchromatin.
Toward the end of my postdoc at The Hutch I found that loss of myc in neural stem cells leads to more heterochromatin. See the image below.
We also study the histone variant H3.3 so a new preprint on both H3.3 and chromatin is right up our alley. Let’s start with that.
Chromatin and heterochromatin
Other reads
- FDA allowed Mesoblast to proceed with their BLA on their investigational cell therapy for GvHD. Hopefully this signals some more good news coming down the road but it’s been a tough path.
- In the continuing saga of trying and not succeeding in finding clinical uses for umbilical cord cells outside of their proven use for reconstitution, we have this: A Randomized, Placebo-Controlled, Phase II Trial of Intravenous Allogeneic Non-HLA Matched, Unrelated Donor, Cord Blood Infusion for Ischemic Stroke, Stem Cells Transl Med. The team led by Joanne Kurtzberg found no benefit of cord cells for stroke, although the study was noted as incomplete in a sense due to enrollment issues. I have had concerns for years about Kurtzberg’s team at Duke requiring large payments like $15,000 from families for unproven cord cells for autism and CP via compassionate use. This continued even after the team itself found largely negative data on cord cells for autism. The Duke autism expanded access program recently ended without a good explanation.
- To Live Past 100, Mangia a Lot Less: Italian Expert’s Ideas on Aging, NYT. This is another one of those researcher profiles in the anti-aging space that needs more depth. It’s more of a lifestyle feature piece than a science or medicine piece that gets into actual data. It’s disappointing in many ways. Notably, it doesn’t mention the recent AHA abstract that noted higher risk of cardiovascular disease with intermittent fasting. The AHA abstract may have its own issues but it certainly points to potential risks of fasting. A lot probably depends on the health condition of the people in the study and what they eat when they aren’t fasting. Was it relatively unhealthy food post-fast?
- Brain-cell transplants are the newest experimental epilepsy treatment Neurona Therapeutics’ epilepsy treatment could be a breakthrough for stem-cell technology, MIT Tech Review. Since the trial only has 5 people, I’d say Antonio was a little too excited in this piece, but I agree this area is promising and the tech is cool. I also am hopeful on Neurona Therapeutics and its cell therapy approach to epilepsy but it’s fairly early days.
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- Source: https://ipscell.com/2024/03/weekly-reads-heterochromatin-h3-3-mesoblast-bump/