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Johns Hopkins scientists pull protein's tail to curtail cancer

When researchers look inside human cancer cells for the whereabouts of an important tumor-suppressor, they often catch the protein playing hooky, lolling around in cellular broth instead of muscling its way out to the cells’ membranes and foiling cancer growth. This phenomenon of delinquency puzzled scientists for a long time — until a cell biologist felt compelled to genetically grab the protein by the tail and then watched as it got back to work at tamping down disease.