A Novel role for a transcription factor in regulating genomic integrity
The Division of Molecular and Cellular Science recently published a paper in
Nucleic Acids Research entitled:
A ChIP chip approach reveals a novel role for transcription factor IRF1 in the DNA damage response
Mattia Frontini, Meeraa Vijayakumar, Alexander Garvin and Nicole Clarke
MRC Clinical Sciences Centre, Faculty of Medicine Imperial College London, Hammersmith Hospital Campus, Du Cane Road, London, W12 0NN and School of Pharmacy, Centre for Biomolecular Sciences, University of Nottingham, NG7 2RD, UK
Lay summary:
New high-throughput techniques such as Chip-on-chip (microarray) or ChIP-sequencing are allowing the identification of novel pathways regulated by proteins in the cells. A study led by Dr. Nicole Clarke in the Gene Regulation Group describes the identification of approximately 200 previously unknown targets of the transcription factor, IRF1. Importantly, a number of these targets fall into the DNA damage response and repair category-genes required by the cell to prevent or repair detrimental events that can lead to diseases such as cancer. In this paper, Frontini et al., demonstrated that IRF1 is required for the regulation of one of these target DNA damage repair genes, BRIP1 and implicates IRF1 in the maintenance of genomic integrity and in preventing specific types of cancer such as breast cancer.
Click on the title of the publication (above) to see the abstract and full details