Pint of science 2022. Protein kinases and phosphatases. jack of all trades!

Description

In your body every day your cells must decide whether to live or die, whether to give rise to daughter cells or not and send messages to neighbouring cells. Most of these decisions are controlled very stricly by molecules called protein kinases that work by adding to other proteins a molecule called phosphate, in a process similar to playing tag, and their antagonists, protein phosphatases. But, as in the children playground, within the cell things might go very wrong. And when the activity of the protein kinases is out of control they can lead to diseases such as diabetes, cancer, cardiovascular, neurodegenerative, developmental, immune, and behavioural disorders. In my talk I will speak about these protein kinases and explain how we can deal with their tantrums with drugs, drawing on examples of leukemia and Alzheimer Disease’s treatment.

Estimated audience numbers (if applicable)

20

Period	10 May 2002
Degree of Recognition	National