“Intelligent design” of promoters

Q&A: Coffee break with TRANSFAC

In this webinar Dr. Alexander Kel, the CEO and CSO of geneXplain GmbH, will delve into the roles of promoters and enhancers in gene regulation and explain why artificial promoters are essential for advancing synthetic biology. Applications of artificial promoters design in gene therapy, metabolic engineering, and synthetic biological circuits for achieving precise biological functions will be discussed. A deep dive into promoter architecture will be provided, covering elements like core promoters, upstream regulatory elements, transcription factor binding sites, and composite elements. Additionally, an overview of key databases and software tools, such as JASPAR, GTRD, TRANSFAC, and Genome Enhancer, that are crucial for promoter design, will be provided. Finally, it will be discussed how machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) approaches can predict promoter activity. The strategies for balancing promoter strength while maximizing specificity and minimizing off-target effects will also be addressed. The following main questions will be in the focus of this seminar:

• What are promoters and enhancers? Why do we need artificial promoters?
• Application in gene therapy, metabolic engineering, and synthetic biological circuits to achieve desired biological functions
• Understanding of promoter architecture (core promoter, upstream regulatory elements, TFBS, composite elements etc.)
• Overview of databases and software tools used for artificial promoter construction (e.g., JASPAR, GTRD, TRANSFAC, Genome Enhancer)
• Machine learning and AI approaches for predicting promoter activity
• Balancing the promoter strength: maximizing cell/tissue specificity, minimizing off-target effects.