On soft matrices, the pro-apoptotic activity of DAPK was augmented by its association with the talin head domain resulting from calpain cleavage – an event occurring normally by the core rigidity sensor—whereupon DAPK dissociates from adhesion complexes and is activated by dephosphorylation PTPN12, a cancer relevant tyrosine phophatase [29]. Here, DAPK1 is linked to cancer.