As regards the mechanisms underlying aberrant Yap activation, our preliminary immunoblot analysis of lysates from human HCC and adjacent non-neoplastic liver (Zhou et al, 2009) show that ∼30% of tumours have reduced Yap(Ser127) phosphorylation, while retaining wild-type or upregulated Yap protein levels. The gene discussed is YAP1; the disease is hepatocellular carcinoma.