STAT3 and cancer: To determine whether the two analogues inhibit their targets in intact cancer cells, we treated MDA-MB-468 cells with increasing concentrations of AJI-214, AJI-100, or control Aurora inhibitor VX-680, and determined their effects on Aurora A auto-phosphorylation (Aurora A is autophosphorylated on its activation loop on Thr-288 during mitosis [31]), on phosphorylation of Histone H3 on Ser-10 (Aurora B substrate) and on phosphorylation of STAT3 at Y705 (JAK2 substrate).