A cancer-promoting fusion protein acts during embryonic brain development

A cancer-promoting fusion protein acts during embryonic brain development

  • RESEARCH BRIEFINGS

ZFTA–RELA is the cancer-promoting protein product of a gene fusion. Analyses of accessible sites in the DNA–protein complex chromatin in developing mice show that ZFTA–RELA binds to chromatin modules that are accessible during embryonic brain development, placing some cell lineages at risk of transformation into cancer.