Chromatin Immunoprecipitation is a powerful tool to study protein:DNA complexes and can be used to map transcription factor binding sites or to study epigenetic modifications. In this assay, chromatin bound proteins are crosslinked and the DNA is fragmented. Next, the sheared DNA:protein complexes are incubated with an antibody against the protein-of-interest and immunoprecipitated to enrich for bound DNA. Finally, the crosslinks are reversed and the DNA is eluted for analysis. Purified DNA can analyzed using qPCR, Next-Generation Sequencing, ChIP-on-chip analysis, etc.
Click on the steps below to learn more about how to optimize your ChIP assays.