Kinases are proteins that exist inside cells and direct much of the cell's activities and functions.
Much like the cell's telephone system, kinases transmit information both within the cell, and between the cell's nucleus and its surrounding tissue. Significantly, kinases and their signal transmissions appear to be involved in most, if not all, disease states. As the mapping of the human genome has uncovered specific kinases and their particular functions, Keryx has applied its proprietary algorithm to the mapped kinases to identify particular spots on the kinase sequence that are involved in kinase regulation. The concept behind the KinAce approach is that once a specific kinase is implicated in disease, a compound can be created that modifies the kinase so as to treat the disease. The resulting therapeutic lead is highly specific and, because it is so highly targeted, it potentially presents very low toxicity profile.