The microarray data also revealed that melanospheres might be better protected from cell death because the MITF-activated genes that were up-regulated in melanospheres included genes encoding anti-apoptotic proteins, such as BCL2, livin (BIRC7) and a lineage-specific anti-apoptotic melanoma oncogene, BCL2A1 (Fig. 4A). Here, BIRC7 is linked to melanoma.