OnCo

WAS (Actin nucleation-promoting factor WAS) is a gene that drives cell growth when it is altered. The public catalogues list it as an oncogene driver, and it is called a cancer driver by mutation analysis of patient cohorts. Tied to Skin cancer, Medulloblastoma and Melanoma. This dossier gathers the 0 products (0 approved), 0 trials, 0 pathways and 0 resistance routes in the corpus that involve it, with external identifiers so it can be joined to UniProt, ChEMBL, Open Targets and the rest of biology.

Biology

Effector protein for Rho-type GTPases that regulates actin filament reorganisation via its interaction with the Arp2/3 complex. Important for efficient actin polymerisation. Possible regulator of lymphocyte and platelet function. Mediates actin filament reorganisation and the formation of actin pedestals upon infection by pathogenic bacteria. In addition to its role in the cytoplasmic cytoskeleton, also promotes actin polymerisation in the nucleus, thereby regulating gene transcription and repair of damaged DNA. Promotes homologous recombination (HR) repair in response to DNA damage by promoting nuclear actin polymerisation, leading to drive motility of double-strand breaks (DSBs). Location: Cytoplasm, cytoskeleton; Nucleus (UniProt). Locus Xp11.23 (HGNC).

Where it is found
  • Skin cancer: Open Targets association 0.55 with skin cancer (MONDO_0002898)
  • Medulloblastoma: IntOGen driver in 1 cohort (MBL)
  • Melanoma: Open Targets association 0.52 with melanoma (MONDO_0005105)
Class: oncogene · Gene: WAS · Facts checked 2026-09-23 · Target page

External identifiers

Built from HGNC, Ensembl, UniProt and ChEMBL ids

Products by modality and phase

Browse products →

No product in the corpus is aimed at this target yet.

No trial in the corpus names this target or one of its products.

Resistance routes

Unaddressed routes →

The resistance atlas has no route that names this target.

No pathway diagram carries this target as a node.

Companion diagnostics

Assay registry →

No companion diagnostic in the registry measures this target.

Preclinical models

All models →

No model entry for this target yet; check the cancer entries on the models page.

No open questions recorded for this target yet. Suggest one.

Literature

Preprints →
Latest papers · live from Europe PMC
Open in Europe PMC

Query for this target: (TITLE:"WAS" OR ABSTRACT:"WAS" OR TITLE:"WASP actin nucleation promoting factor" OR ABSTRACT:"WASP actin nucleation promoting factor" OR TITLE:"Actin nucleation-promoting factor WAS" OR ABSTRACT:"Actin nucleation-promoting factor WAS" OR TITLE:"WASPA" OR ABSTRACT:"WASPA" OR TITLE:"IMD2" OR ABSTRACT:"IMD2") AND (cancer OR tumor OR tumour OR oncology OR carcinoma OR lymphoma OR leukemia OR leukaemia OR myeloma OR sarcoma OR melanoma OR glioma). Results are unfiltered search hits about WAS, not a curated reading list.

Export

The dossier as machine-readable JSON: identifiers from HGNC, Ensembl, UniProt and ChEMBL, products with status, trials, pathways, hotspots, open questions and assays. The full entity record is in the open API at /api/v1/entities/was.json. Licence CC BY-NC 4.0.