The recent finding of VAV1 as a negative regulator of NOTCH1 activity in promoting T-ALL (Robles-Valero et al. 2017) was also anticipated by the finding of vav-1/Vav as negative regulator of lin-12/Notch in C. elegans (Yoo and Greenwald 2005). Here, NOTCH1 is linked to acute lymphoblastic leukemia.