Regulating transcription: a chemical perspective.

Many human diseases are characterized by altered gene expression patterns caused by malfunctioning transcriptional regulators. This has spurred new efforts in the development of artificial transcription factors that regulate the expression of specific genes either positively or negatively. Despite impressive advances in the last decade, artificial transcription factors that reconstitute all of the functions of natural regulators are not yet a reality. Such factors will be powerful chemical tools for unraveling the mechanisms by which gene expression is regulated and in the long term offer considerable therapeutic potential.