Microarray analysis identified 51 upregulated and 72 downregulated miRNAs in GES-1-Bmi-1 cells (Fig. 1a and Supplementary Table S2), including miR-27a, miR-155, and miR-516, which were upregulated and had been previously found to be associated with gastric adenocarcinoma or other gastrointestinal tumor invasiveness. Here, BMI1 is linked to gastric adenocarcinoma.