Characterisation of an ill-defined kinase in vivo

Dr. Tilman Brummer (Institute for Molecular Medicine and Cell Research, University of Freiburg)

Kinases represent prime drug targets in various areas of medicine. However, most researchers still work on their “favourite kinases” that were already known before the release of the human genome, but not on “new” ones that might provide novel therapeutic targets. Indeed, the successful translation of concepts, like synthetic lethality or rational combination therapies to prevent or break drug resistance or to treat tumours with undruggable oncogenic drivers like RAS, will require the identification novel kinases involved in oncogenic signalling. By screening for kinases modulating RAS signalling, we have identified a hardly characterised kinase that will be evaluated in in vivo models for RAS driven cancers.