Despite multiple studies demonstrating the importance of the anti-apoptotic proteinMcl-1 in tumor cell survival and treatment resistance, a clinically importantinhibitor has yet to be developed. A recent study by Guo Wei and colleagues publishedin Cancer Cell has utilized a novel high-throughput approach to identifycompounds that act as transcriptional repressors of MCL1 expression. Theirfindings identified a number of candidate drugs to be tested for clinical relevancein human cancers dependent on MCL1 expression.