Synthetic regulation of gene expression

A method of expressing a heterologous gene in a selected cell comprising

• a) introducing a synthetic regulatory construct into the selected cell, the synthetic regulatory construct comprising a cell-specific promoter in operable communication with a heterologous gene and a cell-specific exon,
• wherein the cell-specific promoter and the cell-specific exon are obtained from two distinct genes;
• b) inducing the cell-specific promoter within the synthetic regulatory construct in the cell produce a pre-mRNA transcript comprising mRNA from the cell-specific exon and mRNA from the heterologous gene,
• wherein the pre-mRNA is processed to a final mRNA transcript, and
• wherein the mRNA from the cell-specific exon is excluded from the final mRNA transcript through alternative splicing at a rate that is at least 3-fold greater in the selected cell than in one or more other cells;
• and
• c) expressing the heterologous gene if the mRNA from the cell-specific exon is excluded from the final mRNA transcript.