Fragment-based discovery of focal adhesion kinase inhibitors

Chemically diverse fragment hits of focal adhesion kinase (FAK) were discovered by surface plasmon resonance (SPR) screening of our in-house fragment library. Site specific binding of the primary hits was confirmed in a competition setup using a high-affinity ATP-site inhibitor of FAK. Protein crystallography revealed the binding mode of 41 out of 48 selected fragment hits within the ATP-site. Structural comparison of the fragment binding modes with a DFG-out inhibitor of FAK initiated first synthetic follow-up optimization leading to improved binding affinity.