The determination of this structure clarifies earlier models that sought to explain how the gene, called src , works and offers new information for designing drug therapies to fight cancers. This gives us a better understanding of the breakdown of controls that lead to cancer. Kuriyan heads one of the university's laboratories of Molecular Biophysics.
Cells rely on proteins to regulate their differentiation and growth.
The Src family plays an important role in regulating the body's immune system and other cellular behavior. Src is found in nearly all cells of the body, but Hck primarily arises in cells related to the immune system, such as macrophages and B cells. In a related paper published in this issue of Nature , a team of scientists led by Stephen Harrison, Ph.D., an HHMI investigator at Children's Hospital in Boston, determined the crystal structure of Src. In the cellular signaling event known as signal transduction, proteins cluster together on the surface of the cell in response to an external signal. This clustering is mediated by modular units that carry the phosphorylated tyrosines, or phosphotyrosines.