Role of a completely novel serine/threonine kinase in neurite outgrowth

Schizophrenia is associated with multiple genetic factors. It is known that a novel serine/threonine kinase (STK) is deleted in schizophrenia patients, highly expressed in neuropathological sites and binds DISC1, the strongest genetic factor in schizophrenia. Neurites are critical for brain cell communication. Neuroblastoma cells lacking STK grow fewer and shorter neurites.  This project will add STK cDNA, or a control vector, to the modified cells lacking STK, anticipating that by ‘forcing’ STK expression, the defectiveness in the modified cells will be corrected, thus further supporting the hypothesis that appropriate STK expression is critical for brain cell communication.