Deregulation of HIF-1α/pVHL promotes sustained angiogenesis15 and is causative of von Hippel–Lindau syndrome16–18, a familiar predisposition to develop different types of cancer, such as pheochromocytoma, paraganglioma, retinal- and cerebellar-hemangioblastoma, and renal cell carcinoma (RCC)19. The gene discussed is VHL; the disease is cancer.