So far, there are 538 kinases found in the human proteome. Most of these
kinases play a critical role in normal and aberrant signaling biology. In the last three
decades, the kinase research field has exploded with myriad unknown findings related
to kinases and their disease association. Based on these seminal findings, we can now
assert that >85% of identified kinases are dysregulated in at least one or more diseases.
Due to these remarkable statistics, novel kinase targeting strategies have been utilized,
primarily involving small molecule inhibitors. So far, the FDA has approved around 80
kinase inhibitors (mostly small molecule inhibitors). Here in this chapter, we provide a
description of kinases and their families, kinase-disease association and an up-to-date
status of kinase-based therapeutics.
Keywords: Disease Biology, Kinases, Kinase Inhibitors, Kinome Biology,
Therapeutics, Pediatric Leukemia, Phosphatases, Phosphoproteomics, Protein
Phosphorylation.
