Elton Zeqiraj, who trained for his PhD in the MRC Protein Phosphorylation Unit, co-supervised by Dario Alessi and Daan van Aalten (September 2005 - October 2009) has been awarded a very highly sought-after and competitive Long-Term/Cross-Disciplinary Fellowship from the Human Frontiers Science Programme (HFSP). This will fund Elton's research in the laboratory of Frank Sicheri in Toronto.
Elton had a very successful PhD where he crystallised the heterotrimeric LKB1-STRAD-MO25 complex and discovered the mechanism by which the STRAD pseudokinase by folding into an active conformation is able to interact with and activate LKB1. It is now becoming realised that many other pseudokinases, as well as active protein kinases, e.g. BRAF, may be able to trigger downstream signalling responses simply by being able to bind to targets when they are folded into the active conformation.
Elton had a very successful PhD where he crystallised the heterotrimeric LKB1-STRAD-MO25 complex and discovered the mechanism by which the STRAD pseudokinase by folding into an active conformation is able to interact with and activate LKB1. It is now becoming realised that many other pseudokinases, as well as active protein kinases, e.g. BRAF, may be able to trigger downstream signalling responses simply by being able to bind to targets when they are folded into the active conformation.