The new biomimetic chemistry: artificial transcription factors.

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.