Apoptosis, or programmed cell death, is related to many diseases, such as cancer. Apoptosis is triggered by a variety of stimuli including members in the TNF family and can be prevented by the inhibitor of apoptosis (IAP) proteins. IAP proteins form a conserved gene family that binds to and inhibits cell death proteases. BRUCE, also known as BIRC6, is an IAP family member protein with a BIR (baculoviral inhibition of apoptosis protein repeat) domain and a UBCc (ubiquitin-conjugating enzyme E2, catalytic) domain. BRUCE regulates p53 and the mitochondrial pathway of apoptosis by facilitating the degradation of apoptotic proteins such as Caspase-9 and SMAC by ubiquitination.Synonyms: Apollon, Baculoviral IAP repeat-containing protein 6, KIAA1289, Ubiquitin-conjugating BIR domain enzyme apollon