Protein tyrosine kinases are a large
family of enzymes that play crucial roles in cellular regulation and
development of proliferative diseases, such as cancer. Although
all protein tyrosine kinases share a similar structure and catalyze
similar phosporylation reactions, each kinase, through evolution,
acquired unique structural features that enable it to perform specific
biochemical functions in different cellular processes. This
project will use directed evolution to evolve a model kinase into many
PTKs with specific properties that can perform unique functions.
Through directed evolution, we will unravel the structure-function
relationship of kinases and generate kinases that possess novel
properties as research and therapeutic tools.
