The epidermal differentiation complex (EDC) is the most rapidly evolving locus in the human genome compared to that of the chimpanzee. Yet the EDC genes that are undergoing positive selection across mammals and in humans are not known. We sought to identify the positively selected genetic variants and determine the evolutionary events of the EDC using mammalian-wide and clade-specific branch- a...

The epidermal differentiation complex (EDC), located on chromosomal band 1q21, consists of at least 43 genes that are expressed during keratinocyte differentiation. Indicative of a role for chromatin structure in tissue specificity of EDC gene expression, we identified an inverse correlation between expression and DNA methylation for two EDC genes (S100A2 and S00A6) in human keratinocytes and f...

Acknowledgments. The Envisionment and Discovery Collaboratory (EDC) is a long-term research effort with the contributions of many researchers in L3D. Special thanks go to:  Ernesto Arias, whose work and ideas inspired the whole effort and who envisioned and initiated numerous major developments; and  Eric Scharff , who in the context of his PhD research, developed essential parts of the first...

Gas is trapped in polar ice sheets at ∼50–120m below the surface and is therefore younger than the surrounding ice. Firn densification models are used to evaluate this ice age-gas age difference (∆age) in the past. However, such models are not well tested on low accumulation and cold sites of the East Antarctic plateau, especially for 5 periods with different climatic conditions. Here we bring ...

OBJECTIVE Endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) adversely affect human health. Our objective was to determine the association of EDC exposure with earlier age of menopause. METHODS Cross-sectional survey using National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) data from 1999 to 2008 (n = 31,575 females). Eligible participants included: menopausal women >30 years of age; not currently p...

Philip Jacob, is Program Development Coordinator, Segal Design Institute, Northwestern University, Evanston,, Illinois. The Segal Design Institute in the McCormick School of Engineering at Northwestern University offers an innovative design course called Engineering Design and Communication (EDC). EDC is a required program for all engineering undergraduates and is generally taken in their fresh...

background: dna isolation procedure can significantly influence the quantification of dna by real time pcr specially when cell free dna (cfdna) is the subject. to assess the extraction efficiency, linearity of the extraction yield, presence of co-purified inhibitors and to avoid problems with fragment size relevant to cfdna, development of appropriate external dna control (edc) is challenging. ...