Researchers from Hefei University of Technology in China have recently published an exhaustive review in the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry on emerging roles of small kinase inhibitors in the treatment of diseases. In contrast to well established kinase cancer treatments, their review is focused squarely on nononcologic diseases such as central nervous system disorders, cardiovascular disease, viral infection and autoimmune and inflammatory disease. Since these diseases are not typically the result of cells breaking free of normal kinase controls on proliferation, often through readily detectable escape variants, identifying specific druggable targets can be more challenging.