Scratch n ’ Screen for Inhibitors of Cell Migration

2. Ptashne, M., and Gann, A. (2002). Genes and signals (New garding the location of the DBD relative to the initiation York: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press). site and its effect on transcription activation. Signifi3. Ansari, A.Z., and Mapp, A.K. (2002). Curr. Opin. Chem. Biol. 6, cantly, the authors show that the artificial activators are 765–772. only functional in the cells that contain the target pro4. Dervan, P.B., and Edelson, B.S. (2003). Curr. Opin. Struct. Biol. tein. This level of specificity is uncommon in natural 13, 284–299. activators and constitutes a promising advance in the 5. Nielsen, P.E. (2001). Curr. Opin. Biotechnol. 12, 16–20. 6. Francois, J.C., Lacoste, J., Lacroix, L., and Mergny, J.L. (2000). field [17]. Methods Enzymol. 313, 74–95. The work summarized above describes continuing 7. Segal, D.J., and Barbas, C.F. (2000). Curr. Opin. Chem. Biol. 4, fundamental advances at the interface of chemistry and 34–39. biology toward artificial control of gene expression. The 8. Frangioni, J.V., LaRiccia, L.M., Cantley, L.C., and Montminy, latest addition by Mapp and colleagues provides a conM.R. (2000). Nat. Biotechnol. 18, 1080–1085. crete foundation for designing a new generation of cell9. Han, Y., and Kodadek, T. (2000). J. Biol. Chem. 275, 14979– type-specific and species-specific artificial activators. 14984. Certainly, much remains to be elucidated, because the 10. Rutledge, S.E., Volkman, H.M., and Schepartz, A. (2003). J. Am. Chem. Soc. 125, 14336–14347. ultimate goal is to generate cell-permeable transcrip11. Volkman, H.M., Rutledge, S.E., and Schepartz, A. (2005). J. Am. tion factors that not only turn gene transcription on or Chem. Soc. 127, 000–000. in press. Published online March 4, off but respond to extracellular signals as part of signal 2005.. 10.1021/ja042761y transduction cascades [3]. However, we can anticipate 12. Asada, S., Choi, Y., and Uesugi, M. (2003). J. Am. Chem. Soc. that chemists will continue to bring fresh perspectives 125, 4992–4993. and a zest for understanding biology at the molecular 13. Shimogawa, H., Kwon, Y., Mao, Q., Kawazoe, Y., Choi, Y., level to this highly fertile ground for exciting research. Asada, S., Kigoshi, H., and Uesugi, M. (2004). J. Am. Chem. Soc. 126, 3461–3471. Paramjit S. Arora 14. Kwon, Y., Arndt, H.D., Mao, Q., Choi, Y., Kawazoe, Y., Dervan, P.B., and Uesugi, M. (2004). J. Am. Chem. Soc. 126, 15940– Department of Chemistry 15941. New York University 15. Minter, A.R., Brennan, B.B., and Mapp, A.K. (2004). J. Am. New York, New York 10012 Chem. Soc. 126, 10504–10505. 16. Wu, Z., Belanger, G., Brennan, B.B., Lum, J.K., Minter, A.R., Rowe, S.P., Plachetka, A., Majmudar, C.Y., and Mapp, A.K. Selected Reading (2003). J. Am. Chem. Soc. 125, 12390–12391. 17. Lu, Z., Ansari, A.Z., Lu, X., Ogirala, A., and Ptashne, M. (2002). 1. Majmudar, C.Y., Lum, J.K., Prasov, L., and Mapp, A.K. (2005). Chem. Biol. 12, this issue, 313–321. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 99, 8591–8596.