TGIF: I’m working on an R01, but I still try to find time to read a wide variety of papers. Below are the science pubs that I’m hoping to get to this weekend.
Less Myc, longer “health span” Cell paper from Sedivy Lab.
ESC Histone H3.3 nucleosomal functions Epigenetics & Chromatin paper from Keji Zhao Lab.
Human PGC specification Cell paper from Jacob Hanna Lab.
SETDB1 & hnRNP K tango to silence ERVs in ESCs PLOS Genetics paper from Matt Lorincz Lab.
Novel antibiotic isolated from dirt Nature paper from Kim Lewis Lab.
Myc loving cells in vitro, on plastic dishes, at 20% oxygen tension may very well be physiologically irrelevant when it comes to deriving any sort of knowledge about what may occur in vivo.
You know, except the knowledge regarding what it can do in cells at the basic Biology level.
Also, many systems are getting closer to physiological conditions with 3d printing, matrix scaffolding and the plain old oxygen percentage controller incubators.
It is good to be critical of in vitro studies, being dismissive though leads to nothing.
How many Myc papers, screw that, how many cell culture papers have been published with physiologic Oxygen tension (1-3%)?
Very few.
I would say above 90% of ALL cell culture papers are done at atmospheric, non-physiologic oxygen tension.
Sometimes dismissal is the only way.
Interesting to see the “health-span” and longevity study of mice by reducing Myc expression. At the other biomass extreme, we have bowhead whales, their DNA being looked at for a similar reason…
http://www.cell.com/pb/assets/raw/journals/research/cell-reports/Article%20PDFs/celrep1458.pdf
To think that humans hunted them nearly out of existence… They’re still not out of the woods. It would we ironic if we made the longest-lived mammal extinct.
Yeah, I was surprised. My studies on Myc have shown cells love it and depend on it. It also allows them to outcompete other cells. So very interesting that on an organismal level that less Myc leads to longevity and better health. Not just less cancer too.
Well, aging is an organism wide process, I wonder if myc influences the release and secretion of factors that act on tissues that are distant to the cell of origin.
One can argue that myc is a rogue factor, it will help the cell individually but, be problematic to the tissue itself (increased metabolism, ros and overall oxidative stress).
Would be really cool to replicate the young blood study on high myc and low myc mice (if they don’t just crumble in a cancerous mass-crispr! I Believe in you!).
It would be beyond awesome.