Scheid Signalling Lab @ York University

To develop new ways to explore signalling pathways and protein kinases, one approach is to use engineered proteins that allow use of ATP analogs. These analogs are not able to ‘fit’ into normal kinases, restricting participation in the pathway to only the engineered protein. We do this with the protein kinase ROCK, and show that a specific mutation allows for isolated and specific phosphorylation of ROCK targets with a unique ATP analog. Endogenous ROCK is not able to use this analog, thus the mutant ROCK will be useful in future studies for identifying new substrates. ROCK is very important for cell migration, and there is mounting evidence that future therapies for a number of human diseases, such as cancer, could target ROCK. See full, open access article here.