To evaluate the anti-proliferative abilities of 3-pyrimidinylazaindole-based series of compounds, previously reported by us as protein kinase inhibitors [31], we synthesized their analogues and performed MTT assays in five cancer cell lines, which include A549, HCT-116, Mia PaCa-2, MCF-7, Panc-2, and one normal cell line (HEK293) (Fig. 2A and Additional file 1: Fig. S2A–E). The gene discussed is WEE1; the disease is cancer.