Focal Adhesion Kinase: An Old Protein with New Roles

Abstract

Focal adhesion kinase, FAK is a tyrosine kinase which is prominently localized to focal adhesions and therefore its name, is an indispensable protein in integrin signaling. Since the discovery of FAK, this tyrosine kinase had been shown to regulate a variety of cell behavior like cell migration, proliferation, apoptosis and metastasis which makes this molecule at a centre stage of cell and developmental biology research. We want to take this opportunity to briefly review the current state of knowledge about FAK and why FAK was so important in cell migration, apoptosis, cardiovascular and metastatic research. Since the FAK signalling was very crucial for normal cellular development and cell physiology and since its deregulation prompts the oneset of a variety of diseases like cancer and cardiovascular diseases, an updated knowledge about its signalling mechanism and how FAK interacts with other signalling molecules can not only offer newer understanding in this field but also attract new methods and pathways to explore and investigate its biology, which can further open new avenues in anticancer research targetting FAK.