It had long been suspected that the occurrence of breast cancer had a familial component, but early studies were confounded by the complexity of the disease. However, in 1990, researchers identified a key genetic determinant of inherited breast cancer risk1, which fired the starting gun for what turned out to be a four-year race to identify the underlying gene. This was achieved when Miki et al., in a 1994 paper in Science2, described a previously unknown gene in which affected individuals in high-risk families carried deleterious mutations. The work provided strong evidence that this was indeed the BRCA1 gene.
Competing Interests
A.A. is a co-founder of Tango Therapeutics, Azkarra Therapeutics, Ovibio, Kytarro and TillerTx; a member of the board of Cytomx, Ovibio Corporation, Cambridge Science Corporation; a member of the scientific advisory board of Genentech, GLAdiator, Circle, Bluestar/Clearnote Health, Earli, Ambagon, Phoenix Molecular Designs, Yingli/280Bio, Trial Library, ORIC and HAP10; a consultant for ProLynx, Next RNA and Novartis; receives research support from SPARC; and holds patents on the use of PARP inhibitors held jointly with AstraZeneca from which he has benefited financially (and may do so in the future).