Description
MELK or maternal embryonic leucine zipper kinase is a member of the CAMKL kinase family. MELK is a key regulator of the proliferation of malignant brain tumors including their stem cells. MELK transcript abundance correlates with malignancy grade in human astrocytomas and represents a therapeutic target for the management of the most frequent brain tumors in adult and children. MELK also plays a role in mammary carcinogenesis through inhibition of the pro-apoptotic function of Bcl-GL. Therefore, the kinase activity of MELK could be a promising molecular target for development of therapy for patients with breast cancers