A family of serine-threonine kinases that plays a role in intracellular signal transduction by interacting with a variety of signaling adaptor proteins such as $CRADD SIGNALING ADAPTOR PROTEIN$; TNF RECEPTOR-ASSOCIATED FACTOR 2; and TNF RECEPTOR-ASSOCIATED DEATH DOMAIN PROTEIN. Although they were initially described as death domain-binding adaptor proteins, members of this family may contain other protein-binding domains such as those involving caspase activation and recruitment.