Protein / target
Tyrosine-protein kinase receptor UFO
Protein at a glance
Biological role
Transmembrane receptor protein tyrosine kinase
Strongest disease association
Leukemia, Myeloid, Acute
Therapeutic position
Established drug target
Research activity
Emerging research
Derived from structured UniProt, Open Targets and literature data on this page.
Protein profile
Canonical identity and biological annotation from UniProt.
Function overview
Receptor tyrosine kinase that transduces signals from the extracellular matrix into the cytoplasm by binding growth factor GAS6 and which is thus regulating many physiological processes including cell survival, cell proliferation, migration and differentiation.
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Receptor tyrosine kinase that transduces signals from the extracellular matrix into the cytoplasm by binding growth factor GAS6 and which is thus regulating many physiological processes including cell survival, cell proliferation, migration and differentiation. Ligand binding at the cell surface induces dimerization and autophosphorylation of AXL. Following activation by ligand, AXL binds and induces tyrosine phosphorylation of PI3-kinase subunits PIK3R1, PIK3R2 and PIK3R3; but also GRB2, PLCG1, LCK and PTPN11. Other downstream substrate candidates for AXL are CBL, NCK2, SOCS1 and TNS2. Recruitment of GRB2 and phosphatidylinositol 3 kinase regulatory subunits by AXL leads to the downstream activation of the AKT kinase. GAS6/AXL signaling plays a role in various processes such as endothelial cell survival during acidification by preventing apoptosis, optimal cytokine signaling during human natural killer cell development, hepatic regeneration, gonadotropin-releasing hormone neuron survival and migration, platelet activation, or regulation of thrombotic responses. Also plays an important role in inhibition of Toll-like receptors (TLRs)-mediated innate immune response
Subcellular location
Domains and Gene Ontology detail (37)Hide
Domains & features
Gene Ontology
- Ccell surface
- Cextracellular exosome
- Cextracellular space
- Cplasma membrane
- Creceptor complex
- FATP binding
- Fphosphatidylserine binding
- Fprotein tyrosine kinase activity
- Ftransmembrane receptor protein tyrosine kinase activity
- Fvirus receptor activity
- Pcell maturation
- Pcell migration
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
- ·Receptor tyrosine kinase that transduces signals from the extracellular matrix into the…
- ·transmembrane receptor protein tyrosine kinase activity
- ·cell surface receptor protein tyrosine kinase signaling pathway
Growth-factor signalling
- ·vascular endothelial growth factor receptor signaling pathway
Cell proliferation & survival
- ·Receptor tyrosine kinase that transduces signals from the extracellular matrix into the…
Cell migration
- ·cell migration
Immune signalling
- ·Receptor tyrosine kinase that transduces signals from the extracellular matrix into the…
- ·innate immune response
- ·positive regulation of cytokine-mediated signaling pathway
Haemostasis
- ·Receptor tyrosine kinase that transduces signals from the extracellular matrix into the…
- ·platelet activation
View underlying pathways (2)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.
2 medicines meet Open Targets' target-level approved-medicine definition; the 1 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.
Tyrosine-protein kinase receptor UFO inhibitor
Indicated for 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 AXL
Gene-level evidence surfaced through the gene AXL that 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
7 compounds recorded · 2 approved · 5 in clinical development
View all recorded compounds (7)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
Other modalities — Strong
View underlying tractability evidence (12)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 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.
- Trial status changed
An Escalation/Expansion, Open Label, Multicenter Study of Iadademstat and Gilteritinib in Patients With Relapsed or Refractory Acute Myeloid Leukemia (R/R AML) With FMS-like Tyrosine Kinase Mutation (FLT3 Mut+): The FRIDA Study
- Regulatory approval
Approval: Xospata (EMA)
- New publicationGilteritinib or Chemotherapy for Relapsed or Refractory <i>FLT3</i>-Mutated AML.
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.
Research activity
Papers linked directly to this protein. This is the protein's own literature — descriptor-derived papers are kept separate below.
Most cited
Recent
Europe PMC papers linked directly to this protein.