Synthetic molecule causes cancer cells to selfdestruct: "'We have identified a small, synthetic compound that directly activates procaspase-3 and induces apoptosis,' said Paul J. Hergenrother, a professor of chemistry at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and corresponding author of a paper to be posted online this week ahead of regular publication by the journal Nature Chemical Biology. 'By bypassing the broken pathway, we can use the cells' own machinery to destroy themselves.'

To find the compound, called procaspase activating compound one (PAC-1), Hergenrother, with colleagues at the U. of I., Seoul National University, and the National Center for Toxicological Research, screened more than 20,000 structurally diverse compounds for the ability to change procaspase-3 into caspase-3. "