Synthetic biologics provide a path to target bHLH transcription factors

The ability to target the majority of human transcription factors remains an as yet unachieved goal in chemical biology and medicine. We developed a modular, synthetic transcriptional repressor platform that recapitulates the DNA-binding properties of native basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH) domains and can block the DNA-binding functions of an important oncogenic transcription factor target, MYC.