Protein / target
Serine/threonine-protein kinase ATR
Protein at a glance
Biological role
Protein serine/threonine kinase
Strongest disease association
Seckel syndrome 1
Therapeutic position
Clinically advancing target
Derived from structured UniProt, Open Targets and literature data on this page.
Protein profile
Canonical identity and biological annotation from UniProt.
Function overview
Serine/threonine protein kinase which activates checkpoint signaling upon genotoxic stresses such as ionizing radiation (IR), ultraviolet light (UV), or DNA replication stalling, thereby acting as a DNA damage sensor.
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Serine/threonine protein kinase which activates checkpoint signaling upon genotoxic stresses such as ionizing radiation (IR), ultraviolet light (UV), or DNA replication stalling, thereby acting as a DNA damage sensor (PubMed:10597277, PubMed:10608806, PubMed:10859164, PubMed:11721054, PubMed:12791985, PubMed:12814551, PubMed:14657349, PubMed:14729973, PubMed:14742437, PubMed:15210935, PubMed:15496423, PubMed:16260606, PubMed:21144835, PubMed:21777809, PubMed:23273981, PubMed:25083873, PubMed:27723717, PubMed:27723720, PubMed:30139873, PubMed:33848395, PubMed:37788673, PubMed:37832547, PubMed:9427750, PubMed:9636169). Recognizes the substrate consensus sequence [ST]-Q (PubMed:10597277, PubMed:10608806, PubMed:10859164, PubMed:11721054, PubMed:12791985, PubMed:12814551, PubMed:14657349, PubMed:14729973, PubMed:14742437, PubMed:15210935, PubMed:15496423, PubMed:16260606, PubMed:21144835, PubMed:23273981, PubMed:27723717, PubMed:27723720, PubMed:33848395, PubMed:9427750, PubMed:9636169). Phosphorylates BRCA1, CHEK1, MCM2, RAD17, RBBP8, RPA2, SMC1 and p53/TP53, which collectively inhibit DNA replication and mitosis and promote DNA repair, recombination and apoptosis (PubMed:11114888, PubMed:11418864, PubMed:11865061, PubMed:21777809, PubMed:23273981, PubMed:25083873, PubMed:9925639). Phosphorylates 'Ser-139' of histone variant H2AX at sites of DNA damage, thereby regulating DNA damage response mechanism (PubMed:11673449). Required for FANCD2 ubiquitination (PubMed:15314022). Critical for maintenance of fragile site stability and efficient regulation of centrosome duplication (PubMed:12526805). Acts as a regulator of the S-G2 transition by restricting the activity of CDK1 during S-phase to prevent premature entry into G2 (PubMed:30139873). Acts as a regulator of the nuclear envelope integrity in response to DNA damage and stress (PubMed:25083873, PubMed:37788673, PubMed:37832547). Acts as a mechanical stress sensor at the nuclear envelope: relocalizes to the nuclear envelope in response to mechanical stress and mediates a checkpoint via phosphorylation of CHEK1 (PubMed:25083873). Also promotes nuclear envelope rupture in response to DNA damage by mediating phosphorylation of LMNA at 'Ser-282', leading to lamin disassembly (PubMed:37832547). Involved in the inflammatory response to genome instability and double-stranded DNA breaks: acts by localizing to micronuclei arising from genome instability and catalyzing phosphorylation of LMNA at 'Ser-395', priming LMNA for subsequent phosphorylation by CDK1 and micronuclei envelope rupture (PubMed:37788673). The rupture of micronuclear envelope triggers the cGAS-STING pathway thereby activating the type I interferon response and innate immunity (PubMed:37788673). Positively regulates the restart of stalled replication forks following activation by the KHDC3L-OOEP scaffold complex (By similarity)
Subcellular location
Domains and Gene Ontology detail (44)Hide
Domains & features
Gene Ontology
- CATR-ATRIP complex
- Cchromosome
- Cnuclear envelope
- Cnucleoplasm
- Cnucleus
- CPML body
- Csite of DNA damage
- FATP binding
- FDNA binding
- Fhistone H2AXS139 kinase activity
- FMutLalpha complex binding
- FMutSalpha complex binding
Biological roles
What this protein does, drawn together from its UniProt function, Gene Ontology terms and Reactome pathways.
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Synaptic signalling
- ·Presynaptic phase of homologous DNA pairing and strand exchange
Cell-cycle regulation
- ·mitotic G2/M transition checkpoint
Kinase signalling
- ·Serine/threonine protein kinase which activates checkpoint signaling upon genotoxic stre…
- ·histone H2AXS139 kinase activity
- ·protein kinase activity
- ·protein serine kinase activity
View underlying pathways (11)Hide underlying pathways
Concepts derived from UniProt GO Reactome — each badge above shows which sources supported that role.
Interaction neighbourhood
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.
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.
Drugs targeting this protein
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.
Serine-protein kinase ATR inhibitor
ChEMBL mechanism, action type, target identity and approved indications. Open Targets clinical status.
Translational evidence
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 ATR
Gene-level evidence surfaced through the gene ATRthat 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.
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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.
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Drug development
4 compounds recorded · 4 in clinical development
View all recorded compounds (4)Hide
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 molecules — Strong
Protein degraders — Emerging
View underlying tractability evidence (6)Hide
Raw Open Targets tractability assessment buckets, by modality.
Clinical trials
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 (23)Hide
ClinicalTrials.gov via the drug-target graph.
What's happening now
Recent therapeutic activity around this target — regulatory actions, clinical trials and safety signals for a drug that targets 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.
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.