Normal cell function relies on proteins called transcription factors that regulate gene expression, and transcription-factor disruption is frequently associated with human disease. Transcription factors modulate gene activity by binding to specific DNA sequences of the genes they regulate. However, in trying to understand how sequence-specific transcription factors rapidly and specifically alter transcriptional programs, researchers have been hampered by assays that take days or weeks to conduct.

The National Institute of General Medical Sciences has awarded Kristy Stengel, Ph.D., a five-year, $2.1 million grant to take a new and faster approach in studying transcription factors. Dr. Stengel and her colleagues will rapidly degrade transcription factors using CRISPR-engineered degron technology, collapsing the timeframe for assaying transcription factor mechanisms from days to hours. Combined with proteomics-based approaches and single-cell and single-molecule imaging approaches, these studies should help reveal how transcription factors control gene expression.

Dr. Stengel is an assistant professor of cell biology at Einstein. (1R35GM147213-01)