The aurora family (A, B and C) are serine threonine kinases and key regulators of chromosome segregation during mitosis. Aurora kinase B is a chromosomal passenger protein that regulates chromosome segregation and cytokinesis. Aurora kinase B is associated with the level of genetic instability within tumours and patient survival. It is strongly expressed in exponentially proliferating bronchial epithelial cells in culture and that this expression is markedly reduced in confluent cells. It is also shown that almost all tumours show higher levels of Aurora kinase B expression than their matched normal lung tissues, which could therefore simply be a consequence of a higher proliferative index, or be typical of the progenitor cell and atypical of the bulk of normal lung cells.Synonyms: AIK2, AIM1, ARK2, AURKB, Aurora- and Ipl1-like midbody-associated protein 1, Aurora-B, Aurora/IPL1-related kinase 2, STK-1, STK12, Serine/threonine-protein kinase 12