A mass spectrometry-based approach for studying kinase activity

Abstract

Protein kinases play a key role in numerous cell signaling pathways. They have emerged as an important class of enzymes since aberrant kinase activity is associated with human diseases such as cancer and inflammatory disorders such as rheumatoid arthritis. While the human kinome is comprised of over 500 members, only a fraction have been exploited as attractive drug targets for therapeutic intervention. Thus, many members of the kinase superfamily and their role in human disease remain poorly understood. This can largely be attributed to the fact they are in low cellular abundance in complex protein samples and their detection is often reliant on the quality of available phosphoantibodies. I..