Open AccessThe New Biomimetic Chemistry: Artificial Transcription Factors
Author(s) -
John T. Koh,
Jianfei Zheng
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
acs chemical biology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.899
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1554-8937
pISSN - 1554-8929
DOI - 10.1021/cb700183s
Subject(s) - transcription factor , small molecule , transcription (linguistics) , computational biology , biology , function (biology) , gene , regulation of gene expression , microbiology and biotechnology , chemistry , biochemistry , philosophy , linguistics
While many research programs have focused on the challenge of developing small molecules that can inhibit protein-protein interactions, some researchers have taken the problem one step further by attempting to develop small molecules that mimic the essential features of an entire protein. An area of particular interest has been in the field of artificial transcription factors (ATFs), where the essential function of some transcription factors is to recruit and promote the assembly of a larger transcription complex, leading to the expression of a gene of interest. The goal of synthesizing small-molecule ATFs holds promise as a means to independently control the expression of genes such as those that are misregulated in cancer and disease.