ALK assay
ALK receptor tyrosine kinase
Synonyms: CD246, Anaplastic lymphoma kinase
Family: Tyrosine Kinase (TK)
Anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) is receptor transmembrane tyrosine kinase, which is normally expressed in the developing nervous tissue1,2. It was shown that ALK is involved in increasing number of neoplasias and its role in lung cancer has driven much attention from pharmaceutical industry. One ALK-targeting compound named Crizotinib was approved for treatment of some non-small cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC) in the US and some other countries. Crizonitib was developed by Pfizer, and now researchers are working on new inhibitors with higher selectivity and potency3.
ALK assay is run on mobility shift microfluidics platform (Caliper), which provides best in industry quality of data. We routinely run services associated with this kinase including: screening, profiling, dose-response studies and kinetic measurements. Please contact us for more information.
References:
1. Mologni L. Inhibitors of the anaplastic lymphoma kinase. Expert opinion on investigational drugs. 2012 Jul 1;21(7):985-94.
2. Iwahara T, Fujimoto J, Wen D, Cupples R, Bucay N, Arakawa T, Mori S, Ratzkin B, Yamamoto T. Molecular characterization of ALK, a receptor tyrosine kinase expressed specifically in the nervous system. Oncogene. 1997 Jan 30;14(4).
3. Katayama R, Khan TM, Benes C, et al. Therapeutic strategies to overcome Crizotinib resistance in non-small cell lung cancers harboring the fusion oncogene EML4-ALK. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 2011;108:7535-40