One of the leading causes of Melanoma and other cancers are mutated proteins in the Mitogen-activated protein kinase pathway (MAPK). Our lab focuses on full-length (FL) BRAF, which is classified as an oncogene. This protein is mutated in 50% of patients with Melanoma and 7-8% of all human cancers. Two FDA-approved drugs have inhibited the most common mutation BRAF<sup>V600E</sup>; however, these drugs were ineffective or caused secondary malignancies in patients also harboring a RAS mutation. We use <i>in vitro</i> assays (Western blot/ELISA/Radioactive) to reveal how BRAF mutations behave in the MAPK pathway and clarify the hitherto unknown regulatory mechanisms of FL-BRAF. The biochemical characterization of BRAF in vitro complements other approaches and will help lead to the developments of potent next generation BRAF drugs.

Elucidating the regulatory phosphorylation hotspots of full-length BRAF through enzymological analyses

255th National Meeting (2018)

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