Research Interests

Cells are highly responsive to signals from their environment. The sensing and processing of these signals are carried out by molecular circuits within the cell that detect, amplify, and integrate the signals into a specific response. One of the most widely used cellular responses to environmental signals is to change the phosphorylation state of specific proteins. Recently, we identified a family of atypical “secreted” kinases that constitute a novel branch within the human kinome tree. The Fam20- family of kinases appears to be responsible for the phosphorylation of majority of the extracellular proteins and proteoglycans. What defines these kinases is the presence of a signal peptide that directs these enzymes to the secretory pathway where they phosphorylate ER/Golgi resident proteins, extracellular domains of cell surface receptors, xylose residues within the glycosaminoglycan-protein link- age and secreted proteins such as hormones or growth factors. These kinases are very important in a wide variety of cellular paradigms in which extracellular phosphorylation plays vital and as yet unappreciated roles.