Cancers - especially aggressive ones - block proteins that protect cells from mutating into tumours. One family of these proteins is called Cyclin-Dependent Kinase Inhibitors or CKIs. Researchers have developed synthetic CKIs, but they can be overridden by another protein called Spy1.

Porter and Trant hope their research will lead to the development of drugs that block Spy1 proteins, allowing the synthetic CKIs to be an effective treatment for aggressive cancers.