May play a role in the control of cellular aging and survival. Mainly cytoplasmic, and nuclear at lower level. Highly expressed in brain. Not expressed in lung or liver. Down-regulated in brain from patients suffering from Alzheimer disease. Down-regulated in colon cancer cells, due to CpG hypermethylation of its promoter. Belongs to the GPRASP family. Despite its name, no basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH) domain is detected by any prediction tool.