Signaling pathways transduce extracellular signals to affect transcription factor (TF) mediated gene regulation. TFs are sequence-specific DNA-binding proteins that control the transcription of DNA to mRNA. Approximately, 10% of genes in the human genome encode TFs, which makes them the single largest family of human proteins.

The function of TFs is to regulate (turn on and off) gene transcription according to cellular signaling to make sure the right genes are expressed in the right amount on the right occasion. TFs work alone or with other proteins/cofactors to regulate a diversity of cellular processes, such as cell division, cell growth, metabolism, stress response and apoptosis. Mutations in TFs cause certain diseases. Thus, they are potential drug targets.

The key to understanding the mechanism of a signaling pathway is to identify and characterize the TFs functioning downstream the signaling pathway. CD BioSciences offers a complete portfolio of solutions covering every aspect of TF studies, including binding motif analysis, domain mapping, and interacting protein identification.