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IIT Researchers Discover Powerful Tumor Suppressor      A team
of Illinois Institute of Technology researchers has discovered a
powerful tumor suppressor found only in cancer cells, BaxΔ2,
suggesting the possibility that the sick cells are generating a
previously unknown protein to stop their growth. The discovery
offers exciting possibilities for cancer prognosis and
treatment. An article about the research, "BaxΔ2 Is a Novel Bax
Isoform Unique to Microsatellite Unstable Tumors," was published
in the October 5, 2012 issue of the Journal of Biological
Chemistry (287 (41)).      "This isn't just another isoform.
This is 'out of bad comes good,' a potential new approach to
utilize mistakes made in cancer cells to restore gene function
exclusively in cancer cells," said Associate Professor of
Biology Jialing Xiang, who leads the team that discovered BaxΔ2.
Multicolor immunostaining of BaxΔ2 (green), mitochondria (red),
and nucleus (blue).