Jennifer Kavran

Research Overview

The Kavran lab studies the molecular mechanisms that control signaling pathways with a focus on protein kinases. We are a multi-disciplinary lab, using a combination of structural biology, structural bioinformatics, biophysics, enzymology, biochemistry, and cell biology to answer these questions. Our recent work has focused on using the Hippo pathway as a model system to dissect protein kinase regulation. Hippo signaling controls organ size during development, helps maintain the stem cell niche, and can function as a tumor-suppressor. 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 helped resolve how different upstream signals can activate the Hippo pathway kinase MST1/2, how its activity is regulated by different protein:protein interactions, and explored the contribution of phase separation to signal transduction. We are currently exploring other aspects of Hippo pathway regulation including its dysregulation in specific cancer contexts and developing tools to modulate Hippo pathway activity. Additionally our interests have expanded to include other members of the human kinome and we are always open to exploring the next exciting new research direction.  

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.