From discovery of tyrosine phosphorylation to targeted cancer therapies: The 2018 Tang Prize in Biopharmaceutical Science

Protein tyrosine kinases (TKs) are a family of enzymes that catalyze the phosphorylation of proteins at tyrosine residues. TKs play key roles in controlling cell growth and many other functions by modulating the status of tyrosine phosphorylation of regulatory proteins critical for numerous cellular signaling pathways. Dysregulation of TKs caused by genetic abnormalities (mutation, amplification, fusion, etc.) results in uncontrolled cell growth, and ultimately leads to cancer. Thus, identification of dysregulated TK(s) in a specific cancer type and development of TK inhibitors (TKIs) that can potently block activity of the dysregulated TK establish the foundation of modern targeted cancer therapies. The 2018 Tang Prize in Biopharmaceutical Science was awarded to Tony Hunter as well as Brian Druker and John Mendelsohn for their great contributions in discovering oncogene src as a TK and developing small molecule TKIs or therapeutic monoclonal antibodies against receptor TK, respectively.