Minireview: Evolution of NURSA, the Nuclear Receptor Signaling Atlas

Abstract

Nuclear receptors and coregulators are multifaceted players in normal metabolic and homeostatic processes in addition to a variety of disease states including cancer, inflammation, diabetes, obesity, and atherosclerosis. Over the past 7 yr, the Nuclear Receptor Signaling Atlas (NURSA) research consortium has worked toward establishing a discovery-driven platform designed to address key questions concerning the expression, organization, and function of these molecules in a variety of experimental model systems. By applying powerful technologies such as quantitative PCR, high-throughput mass spectrometry, and embryonic stem cell manipulation, we are pursuing these questions in a series of transcriptomics-, proteomics-, and metabolomics-based research projects and resources. The consortium's web site (www.nursa.org) integrates NURSA datasets and existing public datasets with the ultimate goal of furnishing the bench scientist with a comprehensive framework for hypothesis generation, modeling, and testing. We place a strong emphasis on community input into the development of this resource and to this end have published datasets from academic and industrial laboratories, established strategic alliances with Endocrine Society journals, and are developing tools to allow web site users to act as data curators. With the ongoing support of the nuclear receptor and coregulator signaling communities, we believe that NURSA can make a lasting contribution to research in this dynamic field.

Figure 1

The NR ring of physiology. [Reprinted from Cell, vol. 126, A. L. Bookout et al., Anatomical profiling of nuclear receptor expression reveals a hierarchical transcriptional network, pages 789–799. ©2006 with permission from Elsevier (9).]

Figure 2

Translational potential of selected NR coregulators in metabolism and cancer. Data are compiled from Ref. . The metabolism section identifies phenotypes arising from null deletion of genes in animal models, unless otherwise noted. A comprehensive resource for the role of nuclear receptors and nuclear receptor coregulators in disease can be found in the Molecule Pages Diseases and Phenotypes module on the NURSA web site, www.nursa.org. ALL, Acute lymphoblastic leukemia; AML, acute myelogenous leukemia; CHO, carbohydrate.