M.Sc. Anna-Leena Salmela defended her doctoral thesis "The Spindle Assembly Checkpoint as a Drug Target – Novel Small-Molecule Inhibitors of Aurora Kinases" on the 21st of September at the University of Turku. New small molecular compounds such as flavonoids restraining the growth of cancer cells were identified in this study. The cancer protective effect of flavonoids might be a consequence of the impact of flavonoids on cell division.