In colorectal cancer cells, phosphorylation by Akt1/2 on Smurf1 Thr145 augments Smurf1 protein stability to control DAB2IP abundance, which contributes to increased ubiquitination and degradation of tumor suppressor DAB2IP, dampening DAB2IP’s inhibitory effect on tumor cells (16). Here, DAB2IP is linked to colorectal cancer.