Axl Rose

W. Axl Rose (born William Bruce Rose, Jr.; raised as William Bruce Bailey; February 6, 1962) is an American singer-songwriter and musician. He is the lead vocalist of the hard rock band Guns N' Roses, a position he has held since its inception in 1985. Due to his powerful and wide vocal range and energetic live performances, Rose has been named one of the greatest singers of all time by various media outlets, including Rolling Stone and NME.

Born and raised in Lafayette, Indiana, Rose moved to Los Angeles in the early 1980s, where he became active in the local hard rock scene and joined several bands, including Hollywood Rose and L.A. Guns. In 1985, he co-founded Guns N' Roses, with whom he had great success and recognition in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Their first album, Appetite for Destruction (1987), has sold in excess of 30 million copies worldwide, and is the best-selling debut album of all time in the U.S. with 18 million units sold. Its full-length follow-ups, the twin albums Use Your Illusion I and Use Your Illusion II (1991), were also widely successful; they respectively debuted at No. 2 and No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and have sold a combined 35 million copies worldwide.

AXL receptor tyrosine kinase

Tyrosine-protein kinase receptor UFO is an enzyme that in humans is encoded by the AXL gene. The gene was initially designated as UFO, in allusion to the unidentified function of this protein.

Function

The protein encoded by this gene is a member of the receptor tyrosine kinase subfamily. Although it is similar to other receptor tyrosine kinases, the Axl protein represents a unique structure of the extracellular region that juxtaposes IgL and FNIII repeats. It transduces signals from the extracellular matrix into the cytoplasm by binding growth factors like vitamin K-dependent protein growth-arrest-specific gene 6 (GAS6). It is involved in the stimulation of cell proliferation. This receptor can also mediate cell aggregation by homophilic binding. The Axl gene is evolutionarily conserved between vertebrate species. This gene has two different alternatively spliced transcript variants.

Clinical significance

Axl is a chronic myelogenous leukemia-associated oncogene and also associated with colon cancer and melanoma. It is in close vicinity to the BCL3 oncogene, which is at 19q13.1-q13.2. There is ongoing research to develop possible drugs to target this signalling pathway and treat cancers.