Magna ChIP^® HiSens Chromatin Immunoprecipitation Kit

Superior enrichment, low background. With performance proven for both qPCR and ChIP-seq analysis, the Magna ChIP™ HiSens kit may be the only ChIP kit you’ll ever need. Outperforming any competing kit, this revolutionary approach to ChIP enables enrichment from both low and high amounts of input chromatin while also delivering low backgrounds and high signal-to-noise ratios for ultra-sensitive detection.

"Aging: getting older, exhibiting the signs of age, the decline in the physical (and mental) well-being over time, leading to death. Since the beginning of time, man has been obsessed with trying to slow down, stop, or even reverse the signs of aging. Many have gone as far as experimenting with nutritional regimens, eccentric exercises, fantastic rituals, and naturally occurring or synthetic wonder-elements to evade the signs of normal aging. Biologically speaking, what is aging? And what does the latest research tell us about the possibility of discovering the elusive “fountain of youth”? Many advances in our understanding of aging have come from systematic scientific research, and perhaps it holds the key to immortality. Scientifically, aging can be defined as a systems-wide decline in organismal function that occurs over time. This decline occurs as a result of numerous events in the organism, and these events can be classified into nine “hallmarks” of aging, as proposed by López-Otin et al. (2013). Several of the pathologies associated with aging are a direct result of these events going to extremes and may also involve aberrant activation of proliferation signals or hyperactivity. The hallmarks of aging have been defined based on their fulfillment of specific aging related criteria, such as manifestation during normal aging, acceleration of aging if experimentally induced or aggravated, and retardation of aging if prevented or blocked, resulting in increased lifespan. The nine hallmarks of aging are genomic instability, telomere attrition, epigenetic alterations, loss of proteostasis, deregulated nutrient sensing, mitochondrial dysfunction, cellular senescence, stem cell exhaustion, and altered intercellular communication. The biological processes underlying aging are complex. By understanding the hallmarks in greater detail, we can get closer to developing intervention strategies that can make the aging process less of a decline, and more of a recline."

Cancer is a complex disease manifestation. At its core, it remains a disease of abnormal cellular proliferation and inappropriate gene expression. In the early days, carcinogenesis was viewed simply as resulting from a collection of genetic mutations that altered the gene expression of key oncogenic genes or tumor suppressor genes leading to uncontrolled growth and disease (Virani, S et al 2012). Today, however, research is showing that carcinogenesis results from the successive accumulation of heritable genetic and epigenetic changes. Moreover, the success in how we predict, treat and overcome cancer will likely involve not only understanding the consequences of direct genetic changes that can cause cancer, but also how the epigenetic and environmental changes cause cancer (Johnson C et al 2015; Waldmann T et al 2013). Epigenetics is the study of heritable gene expression as it relates to changes in DNA structure that are not tied to changes in DNA sequence but, instead, are tied to how the nucleic acid material is read or processed via the myriad of protein-protein, protein-nucleic acid, and nucleic acid-nucleic acid interactions that ultimately manifest themselves into a specific expression phenotype (Ngai SC et al 2012, Johnson C et al 2015). This review will discuss some of the principal aspects of epigenetic research and how they relate to our current understanding of carcinogenesis. Because epigenetics affects phenotype and changes in epigenetics are thought to be key to environmental adaptability and thus may in fact be reversed or manipulated, understanding the integration of experimental and epidemiologic science surrounding cancer and its many manifestations should lead to more effective cancer prognostics as well as treatments (Virani S et al 2012).

Chromatin-immunoprecipitation (ChIP) followed by next generation sequencing (ChIP-seq) of the immunoprecipitated DNA is a powerful tool for the investigation of protein:DNA interactions. To perform ChIP-seq, chromatin is isolated from cells or tissues (with or without chemical crosslinking) and fragmented. Antibodies recognizing chromatinassociated proteins of interest are used to enrich the sample for specific chromatin fragments. The DNA is recovered, sequenced on various NGS platforms, and aligned to a reference genome to determine specific protein binding loci. ChIP-seq studies have increased our knowledge of transcription factor biology, DNA methylation and histone modifications.