GDF2 and Familial prostate cancer: In order to understand the role of BMP9 in prostate cancer progression, we employed the soluble chimeric protein ALK1Fc (ACE-041) (Seehra et al., 2009) which binds BMP9 and BMP10 with high affinity and blocks their signaling via ALK1 and ALK2 receptors by acting as a ligand trap (Cunha et al., 2010; Mitchell et al., 2010).