Building on this canonical model of PKR in antiviral immunity, there is also growing evidence that PKR acts as a multifunctional regulator involved in cell proliferation, apoptosis, metabolism, cancer and brain function, and the EIF2AK2 (encoding PKR) missense mutant is associated with neurodevelopmental syndrome (4, 33, 115). The gene discussed is EIF2AK2; the disease is cancer.