BioCentury
ARTICLE | Tools & Techniques

Accounting for All the Factors

March 13, 2008 7:00 AM UTC

Techniques for quantifying transcription factor activity have been limited to examining only a few targets at a time. Now, researchers at Attagene Inc. have published in Nature Methodsan approach to simultaneously report on the activity of a panel of several dozen different transcription factors in cells.1 Genomics and transcriptomics service providers think the tool could have utility in toxicology studies while complementing existing techniques for profiling transcriptional activity within cells.

Many biological pathways, including those involved in inflammation, stress responses and cell-cycle control, converge on the activation of specific families of transcription factors (TFs). Thus, the activity of these TFs can be used to characterize and identify drug-induced or disease-associated cell phenotypes...