KLF and Sp Transcription Factors in Disease and Regenerative Medicine

Saturday, January 23, 2016 - 04:03 in Biology & Nature

This meeting will focus on the genetics, biochemistry, and biology of Krüppel-like factors (KLFs) as well as their structurally and functionally related, Specificity Proteins (Sps) along with their impact on human diseases. Significant efforts will be given to discussing the application of KLF/SP-based tools to gene editing and cell-based therapies for regenerative medicine (iPS cells). KLFs/SP proteins constitute a single family of zinc finger-containing transcription factors that exhibit homology to the Drosophila gap gene product, Krüppel. There are at least 18 KLFs and 9 Sp proteins, with a multitude of important functions including regulation of proliferation, differentiation, inflammation/immunity, metabolism, and carcinogenesis. Dysregulation of KLF/SP-mediated pathways contributes to pathological states such as obesity, cancer, and inflammatory conditions. Recent studies indicate that many of these transcription factors have the ability to reprogram somatic cells to inducible pluripotent stem (iPS) cells, and to maintain the pluripotent state of embryonic stem cells; interestingly, several...

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