bFGF has previously been reported to activate MEK/ERK pathways and consequently induce neuronal differentiation in rat pheochromocytoma cells (PC12), mouse or human neuroblastoma cell lines (Neuro2A, SK-N-SH and BE(2)-C), and embryonic stem cells [2, 3, 5, 7, 46]. The gene discussed is MAP2K7; the disease is hereditary pheochromocytoma-paraganglioma.