Signal Transduction Team
Team Leader: Professor Richard Marais
Location: Chester Beatty Laboratories, London
Section: Section of Cell and Molecular Biology including the Cancer Research UK Tumour Cell Signalling Unit
We use molecular biology, biochemistry and cell biology to study the regulation of kinases that are activated by small GTP-binding proteins. We are particularly interested in the Raf protein kinases and the p21 activated protein kinases (PAKs) and have a special interest in the role that phosphorylation plays in their regulation. We have shown that Raf-1 and A-Raf require both serine and tyrosine phosphorylation for activation, whereas B-Raf requires only serine phosphorylation. We are examining how these phosphorylation events regulate Raf kinase activity and are attempting to identify the kinases that perform them.