The present invention relates to methods of identifying activators of lyn kinase by preincubating a test compound in the presence of lyn kinase; adding ATP and substrate to the lyn kinase and test compound; incubating the test compound, lyn kinase, ATP, and substrate; and measuring phosphorylation level of the substrate, whereby an increase in the phosphorylation of the substrate indicates that the test compound is an activator of lyn kinase.