Screening assays for modulators of human kinesin protein HsKif16b

A method for screening for modulators of a target protein, wherein the target protein has microtubule stimulated ATPase activity and comprises a sequence that has greater than 95% amino acid sequence identity to SEQ ID NO:2 or SEQ ID NO:4 as measured using a sequence comparison algorithm, the method comprising the steps of:

• contacting the target protein with a candidate agent at a first concentration and determining a level of activity of the target protein;
• and
• contacting the target protein with a candidate agent at a second concentration and determining a level of activity of the target protein;
• wherein the activity is selected from the group consisting of binding activity or ATPase activity, and wherein a difference between the level of activity of the target protein contacted with the first concentration of the candidate agent and the level of activity of the target protein contacted with the second concentration of the candidate agent indicates that the candidate agent modulates the activity of the target protein.