Description of Research

Phosphorylation by protein kinases is the most well studied signaling mechanism in eukaryotic cells.  Mutations leading to activation of protein kinases and loss of function of phosphatases can cause many phenotypic changes in cells that lead to disease.  Recent studies indicate progress in developing specific protein kinase inhibitors for the treatment of cancer and other diseases.  A major challenge in kinase inhibitor development is to identify in vivo biomarkers of drug efficacy.  An untapped, but potentially rich source of molecular markers is the serum.  Although the vast majority of kinase activity resides inside cells, there is evidence of extracellular activity arising from ‘ectokinases’.  The primary goal of this project is to investigate the biology of protein kinase activity in serum.