Background

Hippo signalling is a tumour suppressor cascade highly conserved from yeast to man [1]. In mammals, Hippo signalling is deregulated in various cancers; hence, mam-ma lian Hippo signalling has gained much attention over the past years [2]. In a nutshell, the canonical Hippo pathway functions as follows: activated MST1/2 kinases (mammalian Ste20-like serine/threonine kinase 1/2) phosphorylate hMOB1 (human Mps one binder 1) and LATS1/2 (large tumour suppressor serine/threonine kinase 1/2), resulting in the formation of an active hMOB1-LATS complex that phosphorylates the proto-oncogenes YAP (Yes-associated protein) and TAZ (trans-criptional co-activator with PDZ-binding motif), which fi nally leads to the accumulation of inactive cytoplasmic YAP/TAZ [3]