ZNF436 is a zinc finger transcriptional regulator located at chromosome 1 that functions as both an activator and repressor of gene expression depending on cellular context. As a DNA-binding transcription factor, ZNF436 regulates RNA polymerase II-dependent transcription 1. In glioma, ZNF436 is upregulated and promotes tumor cell proliferation by transcriptionally activating BCL10, with high expression associated with poor overall survival 1. In neuroblastoma, ZNF436 shows inverse association with prognosis—higher expression correlates with longer event-free and overall survival, and ZNF436 is downregulated in aggressive tumors with MYCN amplification or 1p deletion 2. ZNF436 is also overexpressed in breast cancer tissues compared to adjacent normal tissue and correlates with advanced disease features 3. In hepatocellular carcinoma, ZNF436 promotes proliferation and invasion through PI3K/AKT signaling pathway activation and is targeted by miR-4317 4. Mechanistically, ZNF436 functions as a non-canonical KRAB zinc finger protein that regulates transposon-derived regulatory elements in a tissue-specific manner; in developing cardiac tissue, ZNF436 associates with SWI/SNF chr1 remodeling complexes to preserve cardiomyocyte identity while restricting alternative lineage programs 5. ZNF436-derived peptides and its antisense transcript ZNF436-AS1 have also been implicated in cancer biology and cardiovascular disease 67.