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Protein / target

Receptor tyrosine-protein kinase erbB-2

Encoded byERBB2P04626Homo sapiensSwiss-Prot
Clinically validated
Therapeutic maturity
18
Approved medicines
Open Targets target-level
View by indication →
30
Clinical trials
Small-molecule tractable
Druggability
Approved Drug

Protein at a glance

Biological role

Transmembrane receptor protein tyrosine kinase

Primary biology

EGFR/ERBB growth-factor signalling

Strongest disease association

Stomach Neoplasms

Via encoding gene ERBB2 · Genetic literature evidence · score 0.61

Therapeutic position

Established drug target

Small molecules and antibodies

Derived from structured UniProt, Open Targets and literature data on this page.

Protein profile

UniProt 2026_02

Canonical identity and biological annotation from UniProt.

Function overview

Protein tyrosine kinase that is part of several cell surface receptor complexes, but that apparently needs a coreceptor for ligand binding.

View complete UniProt function annotation

Protein tyrosine kinase that is part of several cell surface receptor complexes, but that apparently needs a coreceptor for ligand binding. Essential component of a neuregulin-receptor complex, although neuregulins do not interact with it alone. GP30 is a potential ligand for this receptor. Regulates outgrowth and stabilization of peripheral microtubules (MTs). Upon ERBB2 activation, the MEMO1-RHOA-DIAPH1 signaling pathway elicits the phosphorylation and thus the inhibition of GSK3B at cell membrane. This prevents the phosphorylation of APC and CLASP2, allowing its association with the cell membrane. In turn, membrane-bound APC allows the localization of MACF1 to the cell membrane, which is required for microtubule capture and stabilization

Subcellular location

Cell membraneCell projection, ruffle membraneEarly endosomeCytoplasm, perinuclear regionNucleusCytoplasm
Domains and Gene Ontology detail (66)

Domains & features

Protein kinase

Gene Ontology

  • Capical plasma membrane
  • Cbasal plasma membrane
  • Cbasolateral plasma membrane
  • Ccytosol
  • Cearly endosome
  • Cendosome membrane
  • CERBB3:ERBB2 complex
  • Cmembrane
  • Cmyelin sheath
  • Cneuromuscular junction
  • Cnucleoplasm
  • Cnucleus

1255 aa · 138 kDa · 6 isoforms

Biological roles

Reactome v97

What this protein does, drawn together from its UniProt function, Gene Ontology terms and Reactome pathways.

Receptor tyrosine kinase signallingUniProt · GO · ReactomeCell proliferation & survivalGO · ReactomeGrowth-factor signallingGOCell migrationReactomeOncogenic signallingReactomeTranscriptional regulationGO · Reactome
View supporting evidence

Receptor tyrosine kinase signalling

  • ·Protein tyrosine kinase that is part of several cell surface receptor complexes, but tha…
  • ·ERBB3:ERBB2 complex
  • ·ErbB-3 class receptor binding
  • ·receptor tyrosine kinase binding

Cell proliferation & survival

  • ·cell population proliferation
  • ·PIP3 activates AKT signaling
  • ·PI5P, PP2A and IER3 Regulate PI3K/AKT Signaling

Growth-factor signalling

  • ·cellular response to epidermal growth factor stimulus
  • ·epidermal growth factor receptor signaling pathway

Cell migration

  • ·Sema4D induced cell migration and growth-cone collapse
  • ·ERBB2 Regulates Cell Motility

Oncogenic signalling

  • ·Constitutive Signaling by Aberrant PI3K in Cancer

Transcriptional regulation

  • ·DNA-templated transcription
  • ·positive regulation of transcription by RNA polymerase I
  • ·TFAP2 (AP-2) family regulates transcription of growth factors and their receptors
View underlying pathways (25)

Concepts derived from UniProt GO Reactome — each badge above shows which sources supported that role.

Interaction neighbourhood

STRING v12.0

Proteins with the strongest functional or physical association. Node size and line weight reflect STRING confidence; hover or select a partner to inspect one association.

ERBB4GRB7NRG1EGFRERBINGRB2SHC1ERBB3CD44SRCERBB2

10 strongest partners — larger node and heavier line mean higher confidence

Functional and physical associations from STRING v12.0. Only associations with this protein are drawn — partner-to-partner links are not part of this evidence.

Approved medicines with mapped indications

5 medicines · 6 areas

Approved therapies targeting this protein, grouped by what they are approved to treat — the disease-first view of the medicines below. Relationships come from the canonical approved-indication graph (ChEMBL phase-4), the same source as the drug cards.

Carcinoma, Non-Small-Cell Lung1 medicine
Colorectal Neoplasms1 medicine
Neoplasm Metastasis1 medicine
Pancreatic Neoplasms1 medicine
Broader indication categories (1)

Broad umbrella indications (e.g. “Neoplasms”). Shown here because every medicine also appears under a more specific disease above — kept for completeness, de-emphasised for clarity.

18 medicines meet Open Targets' target-level approved-medicine definition; the 5 shown here are those on this page with a canonical approved disease indication in the graph. Approved indications from ChEMBL (phase-4), via the canonical drug→disease graph.

Drugs targeting this protein

10

How approved and investigational drugs engage this protein — mechanism and action type, direct vs complex targeting, and how broadly each acts across other targets. A drug-first view (the section above groups the approved ones disease-first); direct binders with few recorded targets are listed first.

trastuzumab deruxtecan
Narrow target profileApprovedBinding agent

Receptor protein-tyrosine kinase erbB-2 binding agent

Indicated for Breast Neoplasms, Neoplasms

Direct interaction with this protein · 1 of 2 recorded protein targets — narrow recorded profile

tucatinib
Narrow target profileApprovedInhibitor

Receptor protein-tyrosine kinase erbB-2 inhibitor

Indicated for Breast Neoplasms, Colorectal Neoplasms, Neoplasm Metastasis, Neoplasms

Direct interaction with this protein · Only this protein recorded as a target

pertuzumab
Narrow target profileApprovedInhibitor

Receptor protein-tyrosine kinase erbB-2 inhibitor

Indicated for Breast Neoplasms, Neoplasms

Direct interaction with this protein · Only this protein recorded as a target

pyrotinib
Narrow target profilePhase 3Inhibitor

Receptor protein-tyrosine kinase erbB-2 inhibitor

Direct interaction with this protein · 1 of 2 recorded protein targets — narrow recorded profile

trastuzumab duocarmazine
Narrow target profileApprovedBinding agent

Receptor protein-tyrosine kinase erbB-2 binding agent

Direct interaction with this protein · Only this protein recorded as a target

ertumaxomab
Narrow target profilePhase 2Cross-linking agent

Receptor protein-tyrosine kinase erbB-2 cross-linking agent

Direct interaction with this protein · 1 of 2 recorded protein targets — narrow recorded profile

View all 10 targeting drugs
margetuximab
Narrow target profileApprovedInhibitor

Receptor protein-tyrosine kinase erbB-2 inhibitor

Indicated for Breast Neoplasms, Neoplasms

Direct interaction with this protein · Only this protein recorded as a target

neratinib
Narrow target profileApprovedInhibitor

Receptor protein-tyrosine kinase erbB-2 inhibitor

Direct interaction with this protein · 1 of 3 recorded protein targets — narrow recorded profile

disitamab vedotin
Phase 3Binding agent

Receptor tyrosine-protein kinase erbB-2 binding agent

Direct interaction with this protein · 1 of 16 recorded protein targets — broad pharmacology

zenocutuzumab
ApprovedInhibitor

ErbB-2/ErbB-3 heterodimer inhibitor

Indicated for Carcinoma, Non-Small-Cell Lung, Pancreatic Neoplasms

Acts on a complex — shared with ERBB3 · 1 of 2 recorded protein targets — narrow recorded profile

ChEMBL mechanism, action type, target identity and approved indications. Open Targets clinical status.

Translational evidence

Open Targets 26

Why this target matters therapeutically, strongest evidence first. Disease associations are gene-level (via the gene that encodes this protein) and open into the full confidence synthesis; the development universe, tractability and safety annotations are target-level, from Open Targets.

Strongest disease associations · via encoding gene ERBB2

Gene-level evidence surfaced through the gene ERBB2that encodes this protein — not a direct protein–disease relationship. Ranked by Forefront's causal-directness weighting, so genetically- and clinically-evidenced diseases lead over ones that merely share the literature.

Stomach Neoplasms
0.93Well supported

Clinical evidence dominant · Open Targets 0.73

Neoplasms
0.92Well supported

Clinical evidence dominant · Open Targets 0.78

Carcinoma, Non-Small-Cell Lung
0.91Well supported

Clinical evidence dominant · Open Targets 0.78

Breast Neoplasms
0.89Well supported

Clinical evidence dominant · Open Targets 0.70

Gastric adenocarcinoma
0.84Well supported

Clinical evidence dominant · Open Targets 0.69

View evidence synthesis (5)
Stomach NeoplasmsWell supported
0.93
agreement 0.831.00
Clinical40%Genetic31%Somatic mutation20%Literature9%Genetic literaturedup

Open Targets aggregate 0.73 · 4 independent evidence families · 1 not counted as duplicate

NeoplasmsWell supported
0.92
agreement 0.831.00
Clinical40%Pathway22%Somatic mutation17%Genetic14%Literature8%

Open Targets aggregate 0.78 · 5 independent evidence families

Carcinoma, Non-Small-Cell LungWell supported
0.91
agreement 0.801.00
Clinical46%Somatic mutation29%Pathway15%Literature9%

Open Targets aggregate 0.78 · 4 independent evidence families

Breast NeoplasmsWell supported
0.89
agreement 0.781.00
Clinical52%Somatic mutation27%Pathway11%Literature10%

Open Targets aggregate 0.70 · 4 independent evidence families

Gastric adenocarcinomaWell supported
0.84
agreement 0.720.96
Clinical53%Somatic mutation37%Literature10%

Open Targets aggregate 0.69 · 3 independent evidence families

This ranking differs from Open Targets' own: re-weighting moves genetically-evidenced diseases above more heavily co-mentioned ones. The evidence agreement range shows how closely the independent evidence families agree — it is not a statistical confidence interval, and nothing here is fitted to outcome data. Derived from Open Targets evidence types under Forefront weighting; the per-type scores above show the calculation.

Show all associations
Carcinoma, Non-Small-Cell Lung0.78
Neoplasms0.78
Stomach Neoplasms0.73
Breast Neoplasms0.70
Gastric adenocarcinoma0.69
Urinary Bladder Neoplasms0.66
Adenocarcinoma of Lung0.64
HER2 positive breast carcinoma0.62

Drug development

48 compounds recorded · 18 approved · 30 in clinical development

Open Targets' development universe — every compound recorded against the target at any stage, not all approved medicines. Distinct from the 10 drugs that target this protein in Forefront's canonical graph (5 with a mapped approved indication, shown above): these count different sets and are not a subset relation.

View all recorded compounds (10)
MM-111Phase 2
KBP5209Phase 1
LAPATINIB DITOSYLATEApproval
CANERTINIB DIHYDROCHLORIDEPhase 2
PERTUZUMABApproval
MASOPROCOLApproval
DACOMITINIBApproval
ZANIDATAMABApproval
TRASTUZUMAB EMTANSINEApproval
TUCATINIBApproval

Open Targets known-drugs universe. Drug name and highest clinical stage only — the disease relationship is NOT read from this slice (it carries trial-context noise); approved indications come from the canonical graph above.

Tractability

Small moleculesStrong

Approved Drug and Structure with Ligand support this modality.

AntibodiesStrong

Approved Drug and UniProt loc high conf support this modality.

Protein degradersEmerging

Feasibility evidence (literature and database ubiquitination) — no clinical-stage drug of this modality recorded.

Other modalitiesStrong

Approved Drug support this modality.

View underlying tractability evidence (15)
SM · Approved DrugSM · Structure with LigandSM · High-Quality LigandSM · High-Quality PocketSM · Druggable FamilyAB · Approved DrugAB · UniProt loc high confAB · GO CC high confAB · UniProt SigP or TMHMMAB · Human Protein Atlas locPR · LiteraturePR · Database UbiquitinationPR · Half-life DataPR · Small Molecule BinderOC · Approved Drug

Raw Open Targets tractability assessment buckets, by modality.

Safety-related annotations

heart diseaseForce et al. (2011)cardiotoxicityClinPGxmore sensitive to trastuzamabClinPGx

Terms indexed against this target in Open Targets' safety data, with their datasource. These are annotations, not causal claims: the direction of effect (whether activation or inhibition is implicated), species and evidence strength are not captured here, so an entry does not mean that modulating this target is known to cause that condition.

Clinical trials

30

Trials of drugs that target this protein — reached indirectly through those drugs, so a trial listed here studies the drug, not the protein. Ranked by active status, then clinical phase and recency, and spread across the targeting drugs.

View all trials (26)

RECRUITING · via pertuzumab · NCT07612215

ClinicalTrials.gov via the drug-target graph.

What's happening now

12

Recent therapeutic activity around this target — regulatory actions, clinical trials and safety signals for 6 drugs that target this protein, plus publications where such a drug is a genuine subject. Every item is reached indirectly through the drug, not the protein itself; incidental mentions (a paper that merely measures a drug) and press items are excluded.

  1. Trial status changed2026-07-22

    Phase I Study of the Pan-ERBB Inhibitor Neratinib Given in Combination With Everolimus, Palbociclib, or Trametinib in Advanced Cancer Subjects With EGFR Mutation/Amplification, HER2 Mutation/Amplification, or HER3/4 Mutation or KRAS Mutation

    Status changed to Terminated · ClinicalTrials.gov · via neratinib

  2. Trial status changed2026-07-20

    A Prospective, Open, Single-center Clinical Study of Disitamab Vedotin Combined With BCG Therapy in HER2-expressing High-risk Non-muscle Invasive Bladder Cancer

    Status changed to Active, not recruiting · ClinicalTrials.gov · via disitamab vedotin

  3. Trial status changed2026-07-06

    PIKture-01: First-in-Human Study of the PI3KαH1047R Mutant-Selective Inhibitor OKI-219 as Monotherapy in Participants With Advanced Solid Tumors and as Part of Combination Therapy in Participants With Advanced Breast Cancer

    Status changed to Active, not recruiting · ClinicalTrials.gov · via tucatinib

  4. Regulatory approval2026-04-23

    Approval: Poherdy (EMA)

    ema · regulatory · ema · via pertuzumab

  5. New publication2025-02-01
    Efficacy of Zenocutuzumab in <i>NRG1</i> Fusion-Positive Cancer.

    The New England journal of medicine · 2025 · 78 citations · Europe PMC · via zenocutuzumab

  6. New publication2025-01-17
    Tucatinib and trastuzumab in HER2-mutated metastatic breast cancer: a phase 2 basket trial.

    Nature medicine · 2025 · 14 citations · Europe PMC · via tucatinib

  7. New publication2024-12-26
    MOUNTAINEER-03 phase III study design: first-line mFOLFOX6 + tucatinib + trastuzumab for HER2+ metastatic colorectal cancer.

    Future oncology (London, England) · 2025 · 8 citations · Europe PMC · via tucatinib

  8. New publication2024-12-01
    Trastuzumab Deruxtecan with Nivolumab in HER2-Expressing Metastatic Breast or Urothelial Cancer: Analysis of the Phase Ib DS8201-A-U105 Study.

    Clinical cancer research : an official journal of the American Association for Cancer Research · 2024 · 31 citations · Europe PMC · via trastuzumab deruxtecan

  9. New publication2024-09-13
    Trastuzumab deruxtecan in HER2-positive advanced breast cancer with or without brain metastases: a phase 3b/4 trial.

    Nature medicine · 2024 · 142 citations · Europe PMC · via trastuzumab deruxtecan

  10. Regulatory approval2021-02-11

    Approval: Tukysa (EMA)

    ema · regulatory · ema · via tucatinib

  11. Regulatory approval2021-01-18

    Approval: Enhertu (EMA)

    ema · regulatory · ema · via trastuzumab deruxtecan

  12. Regulatory approval2018-08-31

    Approval: Nerlynx (EMA)

    ema · regulatory · ema · via neratinib

Objective event titles are shown unmodified; the event kind and significance line are derived from structured fields. Forefront AttentionEvent stream aggregating Europe PMC Regulatory filings ClinicalTrials.gov.

Related family literature

51

Papers about “ErbB Receptors” — a broader family this protein belongs to. Shown as context; not counted as papers specifically about this protein.

NSCLC: from tumorigenesis, immune checkpoint misuse to current and future targeted therapy.

Raskova Kafkova L · Frontiers in immunology · 2024

via ErbB Receptors

Amivantamab plus Lazertinib in Previously Untreated <i>EGFR</i>-Mutated Advanced NSCLC.

Cho BC · The New England journal of medicine · 2024

via ErbB Receptors

Europe PMC literature, reached through curated HGNC family membership. Membership is a taxonomic relationship — it does not imply this protein participates in every mechanism these papers discuss.