Ultanir lab

Kinases and Brain Development Laboratory

: TNIK

TRAF2 And Nck Interacting Kinase (TNIK) is a serine/threonine kinase in the Ste20-like family of kinases. Genome wide association studies and transcriptome comparisons of psychiatric patients have implicated TNIK in neurological diseases. Homozygous loss of function mutations in TNIK cause intellectual disability. TNIK is found in the postsynaptic density of excitatory synapses.

Despite its synaptic localization and implication in human neurological disorders, molecular mechanisms downstream of TNIK are not well-understood. Using chemical genetic kinase substrate identification and phosphoproteomics methods in TNIK/MINK knockout mice, we identified novel substrates of TNIK. We identified novel molecular mechanisms downstream of TNIK in regulating spine development, (Mihaylov et al, in preparation).