The Dance of Death: How the kinase RIPK3 triggers cell killing by the pseudokinase MLKL: a QBI seminar with James Murphy

The QBI Online Seminar Series presents James Murphy, the head of the Inflammation Division at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research in Melbourne, Australia. After developing an interest in kinases and pseudokinases as a postdoc with Tony Pawson and Frank Sicheri, he established his lab to dissect pseudokinase signaling functions using structural, cellular, and animal biology approaches. With the support of prestigious fellowships from the Australian Research Council and National Health and Medical Research Council, he has published more than 100 papers.

The Murphy lab is interested in the “zombie” cousins of protein kinases, the pseudokinases. In particular, their work on the terminal effector in the necroptosis cell death pathway MLKL has advanced our understanding of how pseudokinases regulate cell signaling via molecular switch functions and protein interactions.