Volume 22 Issue 2, February 2012

The CTCF/cohesin complex regulates higher order chromatin structure by creating long-range chromatin loops and by insulating neighboring genes from each other. The lymphocyte antigen receptor loci have large numbers of CTCF/cohesin binding sites, and recent studies demonstrate that the CTCF/cohesin complex plays several important roles in regulating the process of V(D)J recombination at these megabase-sized receptor loci.

Gene-editing technologies and patient-specific induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) may represent an unprecedented opportunity for merging the stem cell and traditional gene therapy fields to fulfill the promises of regenerative medicine.

It is well documented that the K-RAS oncogene efficiently transforms non-malignant cells, and there is some evidence for the role of mitochondria in this process. Now Peng Huang and colleagues show that K-Ras induction results early on in mitochondria assuming the phenotype consistent with the so-called Warburg effect, i.e., increased glycolysis and attenuated oxidative phosphorylation. Thus the K-Ras protein capable of swift induction of phenotypic changes typical of cancer cells, yet these changes are reversible, and for cells to irreversibly reach their full malignant potential a much longer K-Ras expression is required, implicating mitochondria in the longer-term effects of the oncogene.