Biomedical subjects

Kyung-Soon Park

Publications and source records attributed to Kyung-Soon Park.

7 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2006

Engineering of GAL1 promoter-driven expression system with artificial transcription factors.

We isolated and characterized artificial transcription factors (ATFs) that functionally activate GAL1 promoter in yeast. These ATFs transformed the yeast galactose-dependent GAL1 promoter system into a galactose-independent one. The ATFs were identified by screening a combinatorial library of zinc finger-containing transcription factors for components that activated the transcription of a reporter gene under the control of a truncated GAL1 promoter from which the GAL4p-binding sites were deleted. We also showed that these ATFs activate transcription from GAL1 promoter by binding directly to specific sequence elements in the promoter.

Base Sequence↗

PubMed2006

Miniatured blood glucose measurement module interfaced with cellular phone.

Chronic diabetes requires systematic disease management that considers the patients' personal characteristics such as age and sex. The bureaucratic complexity of the Korean medical system lowers the efficiency of diabetes management. The present study developed a miniature blood glucose meter interfaced through the serial port of a cellular phone. The measured glucose level is displayed and efficiently managed by the customized GUI program run on the mobile platform. The present results demonstrate a new medical application example of mobile telecommunication technology.

Blood Glucose↗

PubMed2006

Personal diabetes management system based on ubiquitous computing technology.

Assisting diabetes patients to self manage blood glucose test and insulin injection is of great importance for their healthcare. This study presented a PDA based system to manage the personal glucose level data interfaced with a small glucometer through a serial port. The data stored in the PDA can be transmitted by cradle or wireless communication to the remote web-server, where further medical analysis and service is provided. This system enables more efficient and systematic management of diabetes patients through self management and remote medical practice.

Blood Glucose Self-Monitoring↗

PubMed2005

Phenotypic alteration and target gene identification using combinatorial libraries of zinc finger proteins in prokaryotic cells.

We have developed a method with prokaryotic organisms that uses randomized libraries of zinc finger-containing artificial transcription factors to induce phenotypic variations and to identify genes involved in the generation of a specific phenotype of interest. Combining chromatin immunoprecipitation experiments and in silico prediction of target DNA binding sequences for the artificial transcription factors, we identified ubiX, whose down-regulation correlates with the thermotolerance phenotype in Escherichia coli. Our results show that randomized libraries of artificial transcription factors are powerful tools for functional genomic studies.

Amino Acid Sequence↗

PubMed2003

Phenotypic alteration of eukaryotic cells using randomized libraries of artificial transcription factors.

We have developed a method in which randomized libraries of zinc finger-containing artificial transcription factors are used to induce phenotypic variations in yeast and mammalian cells. By linking multiple zinc-finger domains together, we constructed more than 100,000 zinc-finger proteins with diverse DNA-binding specificities and fused each of them to either a transcription activation or repression domain. The resulting transcriptional regulatory proteins were expressed individually in cells, and the transfected cells were screened for various phenotypic changes, such as drug resistance, thermotolerance or osmotolerance in yeast, and differentiation in mammalian cells. Genes associated with the selected phenotypes were also identified. Our results show that randomized libraries of artificial transcription factors are useful tools for functional genomics and phenotypic engineering.

Animals↗

PubMed2003

Human zinc fingers as building blocks in the construction of artificial transcription factors.

We describe methods for generating artificial transcription factors capable of up- or downregulating the expression of genes whose promoter regions contain the target DNA sequences. To accomplish this, we screened zinc fingers derived from sequences in the human genome and isolated 56 zinc fingers with diverse DNA-binding specificities. We used these zinc fingers as modular building blocks in the construction of novel, sequence-specific DNA-binding proteins. Fusion of these zinc-finger proteins with either a transcriptional activation or repression domain yielded potent transcriptional activators or repressors, respectively. These results show that the human genome encodes zinc fingers with diverse DNA-binding specificities and that these domains can be used to design sequence-specific DNA-binding proteins and artificial transcription factors.

DNA↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Identification and use of zinc finger transcription factors that increase production of recombinant proteins in yeast and mammalian cells.

Randomized ZFP-TF libraries could induce a specific phenotype without detailed knowledge about the phenotype of interest because, theoretically, the libraries could modulate any gene in the target organism. We have developed a novel method for enhancing the efficiency of recombinant protein production in mammalian and microbial cells using combinatorial libraries of zinc finger protein transcription factors. To this end, we constructed tens of thousands of zinc finger proteins (ZFPs) with distinct DNA-binding specificities and fused these ZFPs to either a transcriptional activation or repression domain to make transcriptional activators or repressors, respectively. Expression vectors that encode these artificial transcription factors were delivered into Saccharomyces cerevisiae or HEK 293 cells along with reporter plasmids that code for human growth hormone (hGH) or SEAP (secreted alkaline phosphatase) (for yeast or HEK, respectively). Expression of the reporter genes was driven by either the cytomegalovirus (CMV) or SV40 virus promoters. After transfection, we screened the cells for increased synthesis of the reporter proteins. From these cells, we then isolated several ZFP-transcription factors (ZFP-TFs) that significantly increased hGH or SEAP synthesis and subjected these regulatory proteins to further characterization. Our results show that randomized ZFP-TF libraries are useful tools for improving the yield of heterologous recombinant protein both in yeast and mammalian cells.

Alkaline Phosphatase↗