Cancer cells evade death by over-producing specific proteins that inhibit apoptosis. One such group of proteins is the Bcl-2 family, of which Bcl-xL is an important member. This protein binds and inhibits BAK, another protein that promotes apoptosis. While the development of chemical inhibitors that block Bcl-xL–BAK association have been the focus of intense research efforts, we demonstrate in this manuscript an alternative strategy to ...