Protein / target

Echinoderm microtubule-associated protein-like 4

EML4Q9HC35Homo sapiensSwiss-Prot
Clinically validated
Therapeutic maturity
5
Approved medicines
30
Clinical trials
Small-molecule tractable
Druggability
Approved Drug

Protein at a glance

Biological role

Alpha-tubulin binding

Strongest disease association

Abnormality of the skeletal system

Genetic evidence · score 0.82

Therapeutic maturity

Clinically validated target

5 approved medicines against this target

Druggability

Small molecule

Open Targets tractability · Approved Drug

Clinical development

5 approved · 1 in clinical development

30 linked trials

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

Essential for the formation and stability of microtubules (MTs) (PubMed:16890222, PubMed:31409757). Required for the organization of the mitotic spindle and for the proper attachment of kinetochores to MTs (PubMed:25789526). Promotes the recruitment of NUDC to the mitotic spindle for mitotic progression (PubMed:25789526)

Subcellular location

Cytoplasm, cytoskeletonCytoplasmCytoplasm, cytoskeleton, spindleCytoplasm, cytoskeleton, microtubule organizing centerMidbody
Domains and Gene Ontology detail (18)

Gene Ontology

  • Ccytoplasm
  • Ccytosol
  • Cintercellular bridge
  • Cmembrane
  • Cmicrotubule
  • Cmicrotubule cytoskeleton
  • Cmicrotubule organizing center
  • Cmidbody
  • Cmitotic spindle
  • Falpha-tubulin binding
  • Fbeta-tubulin binding
  • Fmicrotubule binding

981 aa · 109 kDa · 2 isoforms

Biological roles

Reactome v97

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

View underlying pathways (3)

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.

ALKKRASPIK3CANRASPLCG1HRASJAK3JAK2ROS1JAK1EML4

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.

Drugs targeting this protein

2

Whether each drug engages this protein directly or through a complex, and how many other targets are recorded for it. Direct binders with few recorded targets are listed first.

lorlatinib
Narrow target profileApprovedInhibitor

EML4-ALK inhibitor

Appears in clinical studies involving lymphoma, non-small cell lung carcinoma, non-small cell lung carcinoma, non-small cell lung carcinoma

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

crizotinib
ApprovedInhibitor

EML4-ALK inhibitor

Appears in clinical studies involving non-small cell lung carcinoma, non-small cell lung carcinoma, non-small cell lung carcinoma, neoplasm

Direct interaction with this protein · 1 of 6 recorded protein targets

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

Translational evidence

Open Targets 26

Why this target matters therapeutically — disease associations, drugs in development, tractability and safety, from Open Targets.

Strongest genetic associations

Human genetic evidence — the most direct causal link between this target and a disease.

Abnormality of the skeletal system0.82

Genetic · overall 0.63

Highest-confidence therapeutic associations

Diseases where a drug acting on this target has already reached clinical development.

non-small cell lung carcinoma0.98

Clinical · overall 0.70

neoplasm0.89

Clinical · overall 0.60

lung cancer0.71

Clinical · overall 0.45

lymphoma0.67

Clinical · overall 0.41

cancer0.60

Clinical · overall 0.67

Highest overall evidence

Remaining associations by Open Targets' aggregated evidence score.

lung adenocarcinoma0.45

Somatic mutation

lung carcinoma0.39

Literature

thyroid gland papillary carcinoma0.39

Somatic mutation

squamous cell lung carcinoma0.39

Somatic mutation

Show all associations
non-small cell lung carcinoma0.70
cancer0.67
Abnormality of the skeletal system0.63
neoplasm0.60
lung cancer0.45
lung adenocarcinoma0.45
lymphoma0.41
lung carcinoma0.39
thyroid gland papillary carcinoma0.39
squamous cell lung carcinoma0.39

Open Targets ranks 451 associations for this target and we store the top 10 by aggregated score. The long tail is largely literature co-mention and RNA-expression evidence, not evidence that this target drives those diseases.

Known drugs · 6 total

ALECTINIB HYDROCHLORIDEApproval

non-small cell lung carcinoma · non-small cell lung carcinoma

LORLATINIBApproval

lymphoma · non-small cell lung carcinoma · non-small cell lung carcinoma

CRIZOTINIBApproval

non-small cell lung carcinoma · non-small cell lung carcinoma · non-small cell lung carcinoma

CERITINIBApproval

non-small cell lung carcinoma · non-small cell lung carcinoma · non-small cell lung carcinoma

ALECTINIBApproval

non-small cell lung carcinoma · lung cancer · non-small cell lung carcinoma

PLB1003Phase 1

non-small cell lung carcinoma

Tractability

SM · Approved DrugSM · High-Quality LigandPR · Database UbiquitinationPR · Half-life DataPR · Small Molecule BinderOC · Phase 1 Clinical

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.

Show remaining trials (24)

ACTIVE_NOT_RECRUITING · via crizotinib · NCT02465060

ACTIVE_NOT_RECRUITING · via crizotinib · NCT06357975

ClinicalTrials.gov via the drug-target graph.

Forefront confidence

Synthesis

Our own weighting of the evidence behind each disease association. Human genetics and clinical evidence count for most; literature co-mention counts for little, because two entities sharing an abstract is not evidence that one drives the other.

non-small cell lung carcinomaWell supported
0.86
agreement 0.740.98
Clinical58%Somatic mutation31%Literature11%

Open Targets aggregate 0.70 · 3 independent evidence families

Abnormality of the skeletal systemWell supported
0.82
agreement 0.700.94
Genetic100%

Open Targets aggregate 0.63 · 1 independent evidence family

neoplasmWell supported
0.76
agreement 0.640.88
Clinical69%Somatic mutation20%Literature11%

Open Targets aggregate 0.60 · 3 independent evidence families

cancerModerately supported
0.69
agreement 0.560.81
Clinical50%Pathway41%Literature9%

Open Targets aggregate 0.67 · 3 independent evidence families

lung adenocarcinomaModerately supported
0.63
agreement 0.510.75
Somatic mutation49%Clinical45%Literature6%

Open Targets aggregate 0.45 · 3 independent evidence families

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 underlying per-type scores are shown above so the calculation can be checked.

What's happening now

7

Recent activity around this target, drawn from one canonical event stream. Every item is reached through 2 drugs that target this protein, so each event is news about that drug rather than about the protein directly.

  1. New publication2024-05-31
    Lorlatinib Versus Crizotinib in Patients With Advanced <i>ALK</i>-Positive Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer: 5-Year Outcomes From the Phase III CROWN Study.

    Journal of clinical oncology : official journal of the American Society of Clinical Oncology · 2024 · 254 citations · Europe PMC · via crizotinib

  2. New publication2021-09-16
    Brigatinib Versus Crizotinib in ALK Inhibitor-Naive Advanced ALK-Positive NSCLC: Final Results of Phase 3 ALTA-1L Trial.

    Journal of thoracic oncology : official publication of the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer · 2021 · 300 citations · Europe PMC · via crizotinib

  3. Regulatory approval2019-05-06

    Approval: Lorviqua (EMA)

    ema · regulatory · ema · via lorlatinib

  4. Safety communication2015-11-12

    Drug Safety Update: Crizotinib (Xalkori▼): risk of cardiac failure

    mhra · safety · mhra · via crizotinib

  5. New publication2014-12-01
    First-line crizotinib versus chemotherapy in ALK-positive lung cancer.

    The New England journal of medicine · 2014 · 2,470 citations · Europe PMC · via crizotinib

  6. Regulatory approval2012-10-23

    Approval: Xalkori (EMA)

    ema · regulatory · ema · via crizotinib

  7. New publication2012-01-03
    ROS1 rearrangements define a unique molecular class of lung cancers.

    Journal of clinical oncology : official journal of the American Society of Clinical Oncology · 2012 · 1,121 citations · Europe PMC · via crizotinib

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.