該基因編碼的蛋白屬于SER/THR蛋白激酶家族和PIM亞家族。該基因主要在B淋巴細胞和骨髓細胞系中表達，在造血惡性腫瘤和前列腺癌中過表達。在血細胞信號轉導中起作用，有助于細胞增殖和存活，從而在腫瘤發生中提供選擇性優勢。據報道，人類和正常小鼠的基因都編碼兩種亞型（具有優先的細胞定位），這兩種亞型是由于在幀翻譯起始密碼子中使用了替代的，即上游非aug（cug）和下游aug密碼子（pmids:161868051825810）。
The protein encoded by this gene belongs to the Ser/Thr protein kinase family, and PIM subfamily. This gene is expressed primarily in B-lymphoid and myeloid cell lines, and is overexpressed in hematopoietic malignancies and in prostate cancer. It plays a role in signal transduction in blood cells, contributing to both cell proliferation and survival, and thus provides a selective advantage in tumorigenesis. Both the human and orthologous mouse genes have been reported to encode two isoforms (with preferential cellular localization) resulting from the use of alternative in-frame translation initiation codons, the upstream non-AUG (CUG) and downstream AUG codons (PMIDs:16186805, 1825810).