Patent ID: 6849721

Claim:
A method for screening compounds for receptor tyrosine kinase (RTK) agonists or RTK antagonists comprising: (a) crystallizing a modified RTK polypeptide, said modified RTK polypeptide having kinase activity and comprising RTK kinase domain α helix D linked to RTK kinase domain α helix E by a truncated RTK kinase insert domain (KID), wherein the modified RTK polypeptide is vascular endothelial growth factor receptor-2 (VEGFR-2); (b) obtaining crystallography coordinates for said modified RTK polypeptide; (c) applying said crystallography coordinates for said modified RTK polypeptide in order to generate a model of said modified RTK polypeptide suitable for use in designing molecules compounds that will act as agonists or antagonists to said modified RTK polypeptide; and (d) applying an iterative process whereby various molecular structures are applied to said model to identify agonists or antagonists to said modified RTK polypeptide.