Raymond Erikson

Raymond Erikson identified pp60-src as a protein kinase and demonstrated that it phosphorylates tyrosine residues, establishing tyrosine phosphorylation as a mechanism of oncogenic signaling. His biochemical characterization of the src protein established that it possessed enzymatic activity as a protein kinase, connecting the genetic src oncogene to a definable biochemical function. This discovery opened the field of tyrosine kinase signaling and provided a molecular rationale for developing kinase-targeting cancer drugs. His work laid the biochemical groundwork that eventually led to kinase inhibitors like imatinib.