A FAK conundrum is solved: activation and organization of focal adhesion kinase at the plasma membrane.

Focal adhesion kinase (FAK) is a central mediator of cell adhesion, acting both as a scaffold and as catalytically active kinase. Acebrón et al (2020) use cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) to visualize the dramatic structural changes that occur upon FAK recruitment to the plasma membrane, which releases FAK autoinhibition and induces its oligomerization. Since activity control via autoinhibition and protein clustering are features also utilized by other focal adhesion (FA) proteins, they have moved center stage in the endeavor to understand the complex process of cell adhesion regulation.