Ankle1-deficient mice are viable and show no detectable defects10–12 Interestingly, non-coding polymorphisms in either the ANKLE1 locus or the neighboring ABHD8 locus have been associated with increased risk of breast and ovarian cancer in the general population and in carriers of BRCA1 mutations, suggesting that altered expression of ANKLE1 or ABHD8 might contribute to tumourigenesis13–15. This evidence concerns the gene BRCA1 and ovarian cancer.