Protein / target
RAF proto-oncogene serine/threonine-protein kinase
Protein at a glance
Biological role
Protein serine/threonine kinase
Strongest disease association
RASopathy
Therapeutic position
Established drug 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 that acts as a regulatory link between the membrane-associated Ras GTPases and the MAPK/ERK cascade, and this critical regulatory link functions as a switch determining cell fate decisions including proliferation, differentiation, apoptosis, survival and oncogenic tra…
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Serine/threonine-protein kinase that acts as a regulatory link between the membrane-associated Ras GTPases and the MAPK/ERK cascade, and this critical regulatory link functions as a switch determining cell fate decisions including proliferation, differentiation, apoptosis, survival and oncogenic transformation. RAF1 activation initiates a mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) cascade that comprises a sequential phosphorylation of the dual-specific MAPK kinases (MAP2K1/MEK1 and MAP2K2/MEK2) and the extracellular signal-regulated kinases (MAPK3/ERK1 and MAPK1/ERK2). The phosphorylated form of RAF1 (on residues Ser-338 and Ser-339, by PAK1) phosphorylates BAD/Bcl2-antagonist of cell death at 'Ser-75'. Phosphorylates adenylyl cyclases: ADCY2, ADCY5 and ADCY6, resulting in their activation. Phosphorylates PPP1R12A resulting in inhibition of the phosphatase activity. Phosphorylates TNNT2/cardiac muscle troponin T. Can promote NF-kB activation and inhibit signal transducers involved in motility (ROCK2), apoptosis (MAP3K5/ASK1 and STK3/MST2), proliferation and angiogenesis (RB1). Can protect cells from apoptosis also by translocating to the mitochondria where it binds BCL2 and displaces BAD/Bcl2-antagonist of cell death. Regulates Rho signaling and migration, and is required for normal wound healing. Plays a role in the oncogenic transformation of epithelial cells via repression of the TJ protein, occludin (OCLN) by inducing the up-regulation of a transcriptional repressor SNAI2/SLUG, which induces down-regulation of OCLN. Restricts caspase activation in response to selected stimuli, notably Fas stimulation, pathogen-mediated macrophage apoptosis, and erythroid differentiation
Subcellular location
Domains and Gene Ontology detail (39)Hide
Domains & features
Gene Ontology
- Ccytoplasm
- Ccytosol
- CGolgi apparatus
- Cmitochondrial outer membrane
- Cmitochondrion
- Cnucleus
- Cplasma membrane
- Cpseudopodium
- Fadenylate cyclase activator activity
- FATP binding
- Fenzyme binding
- Fidentical protein binding
Biological roles
What this protein does, drawn together from its UniProt function, Gene Ontology terms and Reactome pathways.
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Receptor tyrosine kinase signalling
- ·ERBB2-ERBB3 signaling pathway
Growth-factor signalling
- ·insulin-like growth factor receptor signaling pathway
Cell proliferation & survival
- ·negative regulation of cell population proliferation
Oncogenic signalling
- ·Serine/threonine-protein kinase that acts as a regulatory link between the membrane-asso…
Apoptosis & cell death
- ·Serine/threonine-protein kinase that acts as a regulatory link between the membrane-asso…
- ·apoptotic process
- ·negative regulation of apoptotic process
- ·regulation of apoptotic process
View underlying pathways (17)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.
Approved medicines with mapped indications
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.
Broader indication categories (1)Hide
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.
4 medicines meet Open Targets' target-level approved-medicine definition; the 2 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
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/threonine-protein kinase RAF inhibitor
Indicated for Colorectal Neoplasms, Neoplasms
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 RAF1
Gene-level evidence surfaced through the gene RAF1that 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.
View evidence synthesis (5)Hide
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
9 compounds recorded · 4 approved · 5 in clinical development
View all recorded compounds (9)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
Antibodies — Emerging
Protein degraders — Emerging
View underlying tractability evidence (11)Hide
Raw Open Targets tractability assessment buckets, by modality.
Safety-related annotations
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
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)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 2 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.
- Regulatory approval
Approval: Ojemda (EMA)
- New publicationLenvatinib Plus Pembrolizumab Versus Standard of Care for Previously Treated Metastatic Colorectal Cancer: Final Analysis of the Randomized, Open-Label, Phase III LEAP-017 Study.
- New publicationTargeted therapy for hepatocellular carcinoma.
- New publicationMolecular targeted and immune checkpoint therapy for advanced hepatocellular carcinoma.
- New publicationRandomized Double-Blind Phase II Study of Regorafenib in Patients With Metastatic Osteosarcoma.
- New publicationRegorafenib for patients with hepatocellular carcinoma who progressed on sorafenib treatment (RESORCE): a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled, phase 3 trial.
- Regulatory approval
Approval: Stivarga (EMA)
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.