Researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas have developed a small molecule that mimics the action of a key “death-promoting” protein in cells, a finding that could lead to more effective cancer therapies with fewer side effects. In the Sept. 3 issue of the journal Science, the researchers report on this new compound and how it behaves like the cellular protein Smac, a molecule that lifts barriers to cell death. Dr. Xiaodong Wang, professor of biochemistry and one of the authors of the Science paper, discovered Smac in 2000.
