There has been much excitement over the recent discovery that Peutz Jeghers Syndrome (PJS), an inherited disorder that predisposes to a wide spectrum of benign and malignant tumours, is caused by mutation of a widely expressed protein kinase, termed LKB1, of unknown function. Dario Alessi has been awarded £112,003 from the Association of International Cancer Research to fund a 3 year postdoctoral fellowship to study the mechanism of activation and physiological function of LKB1.