What We Research

The Kavran Lab studies the molecular mechanisms that control signaling pathways with a focus on protein kinases. Simply, we want to understand how cells communicate with each other, their environment, and how they respond to that information so to understand how mutations or drugs can change these events in both healthy and diseased cells. 

Our recent work has focused on the Hippo pathway as a model system.  Hippo signaling controls organ size during development, helps maintain the stem cell niche, and can function as a tumor-suppresor.  The core activity of this pathway is controlled by a kinase cassette (comprised of the kinases MST1/2 and LATS1/2) that repress the activity of the transcriptional cofactors YAP/TAZ.  Our work has help resolve how different upstream signals can activate the Hippo pathway kinase MST1/2, how its activity is regulated by different protein:protein interactions, the explore the contribution of phase separation to signal transduction. Our current interest include exploring other aspects of Hippo pathway regulation, understanding, more broadly, regulation of eukaryotic protein kinases, the dysregulation of the Hippo pathway in specific cancer contexts, among others – we are always exploring exciting new research directions.

How We Research

We are a multi-disciplinary lab, using a combination of structural biology, biophysics, enzymology, biochemistry, and cell biology to answer these questions.