Most research on human cancer genes have been focused on  regions of the coding genome, but just before each gene, there is a regulatory region which controls the expression and activity of the adjacent gene. Until now, very little was known of the role exerted such DNA fragment in tumor development. An article published today in Nature in collaboration with the group of Manel Esteller shows that these regions are also altered in cancer.

Huntington's disease is a neurodegenerative disorder that causes involuntary movements, psychiatric disturbances, and dementia, caused by a mutation in the huntingtin gene (HTT) consisting of expansion of the number of repeats of a CAG (cytosine-adenine-guanine) triplet. The study, realized by CIBERNED researchers at Center for Molecular Biology Severo Ochoa and IDIBELL, has been published this week at Nature Medicine.