BRCA2: a 25-year journey from gene identification to targeted cancer treatment

After an interlaboratory competition that lasted more than 4 years, Yoshio Miki and colleagues (University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA) identified the BRCA1 gene in 1994, which was associated with breast and ovarian cancer susceptibility. After a frantic race, Richard Wooster and his team located the second major breast and ovarian cancer gene, BRCA2, on chromosome 13 and cloned it in 1995 (figure). These discoveries have opened the path...