Aurora A is a member of a family of mitotic serine/threonine kinases. It is implicated with important processes during mitosis and meiosis whose proper function is integral for healthy cell proliferation. Aurora A is activated by one or more phosphorylations and its activity peaks during the G2 phase to M phase transition in the cell cycle. Activation occurs via autophosphorylation, and while 14 sites are subject to this, only the threonine residue at position 295 is required for activity. Though autophosphorylation mediates activation, a number of other proteins influence activation, including the spindle assembly factor TPX2 and p53