The proposed mechanism for the inhibitory role of PEAK3 in CrkII signaling
Congratulations to Mitch and Megan whose paper describing first functional analysis of the new human protein kinase, PEAK3, not annotated in the original human kinome was published in the July issue of PNAS (Lopez, Lo et al, 2019). This work, done in collaboration with the group of Krzysztof Pawlowski (Warsaw University), provides an in-depth analysis of PEAK3 evolution, domain structure and sequence homology with other NKF3 kinases. Through an unbiased screen for PEAK3 interactors we unveiled a multi-layered connection between PEAK3 and cellular motility, centered on regulation of the CrkII adaptor protein. These data also show that a partially overlapping set of the putative PEAK3 interactors involves proteins linked to acute myleoid leukemia (AML).