Bioassays to monitor Taspase1 function for the identification of pharmacogenetic inhibitors.

Background: Threonine Aspartase 1 (Taspase1) mediates cleavage of the mixed lineage leukemia (MLL) protein and leukemia provoking MLL-fusions. In contrast to other proteases, the understanding of Taspase1's (patho)biological relevance and function is limited, since neither small molecule inhibitors nor cell based functional assays for Taspase1 are currently available.

Methodology/findings: Efficient cell-based assays to probe Taspase1 function in vivo are presented here.