Researchers Map Cells' Inner Landscapes

A team of researchers at the Broad Institute has helped break new ground in stem cell research through work described in two recent Nature papers. The most recently published study, appearing in the July 6 advance online issue, involves an effort to map regions of cells’ genomes marked by DNA methylation — one of several so-called ‘epigenetic’ modifications. If DNA is the blueprint of a living organism, epigenetic marks, often in the form of chemical tags called methyl groups, are the gatekeepers to that blueprint. When affixed to DNA or to its protein scaffold (called “chromatin”), methyl groups can enable genes to be switched on or off, orchestrating signals that allow cells in the body, which share the same DNA, to assume different forms and functions.

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