Fresh angle on apoptosis

A number of companies are attempting to manipulate the process of cell death at various points along the pathway that includes Bcl-2 and caspases. But Sunesis Pharmaceuticals Inc. is flying into uncharted territory with its focus on one particular aspect of programmed cell death.

In an article in the June Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers at Sunesis reported the identification of compounds that activate the formation of the apoptosome, a complex of proteins comprised of six to seven monomers of the Apaf-1 protein that lead to the activation of apoptosis. ...