Protein / target
Serine/threonine-protein kinase ATR
Protein at a glance
Biological role
Protein serine/threonine kinase activity
Primary system
Immune system
Strongest disease association
Seckel syndrome 1
Therapeutic maturity
Clinical-stage target
Druggability
Small molecule
Clinical development
4 in clinical development
Derived from structured UniProt, Open Targets and literature data on this page.
Protein profile
Canonical identity and biological annotation from UniProt.
Function
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.
View supporting evidenceHide supporting evidence
Kinase signalling
- ·Serine/threonine protein kinase which activates checkpoint signaling upon genotoxic stre…
- ·histone H2AXS139 kinase activity
- ·protein kinase activity
- ·protein serine kinase activity
Synaptic signalling
- ·Presynaptic phase of homologous DNA pairing and strand exchange
Immune signalling
- ·Serine/threonine protein kinase which activates checkpoint signaling upon genotoxic stre…
Metabolic enzyme activity
- ·nucleobase-containing compound metabolic process
Transcriptional regulation
- ·TP53 Regulates Transcription of DNA Repair Genes
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
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.
Serine-protein kinase ATR inhibitor
Appears in clinical studies involving non-small cell lung carcinoma, small cell lung carcinoma, small cell lung carcinoma, ovarian cancer
ChEMBL mechanism, action type and target identity. Open Targets clinical status and indications.
Translational evidence
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.
Highest-confidence therapeutic associations
Diseases where a drug acting on this target has already reached clinical development.
Highest overall evidence
Remaining associations by Open Targets' aggregated evidence score.
Show all associationsHide all associations
Open Targets ranks 1,360 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 · 4 total
primary peritoneal carcinoma · fallopian tube cancer · ovarian cancer
Ewing sarcoma · alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma · lymphoma
non-small cell lung carcinoma · small cell lung carcinoma · small cell lung carcinoma
breast cancer · neoplasm · ovarian cancer
Tractability
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.
Show remaining trials (21)Hide
ClinicalTrials.gov via the drug-target graph.
Forefront confidence
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.
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
Recent activity around this target, drawn from one canonical event stream. Every item is reached through a drug that targets this protein, so each event is news about that drug rather than about the protein directly.
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.