MRE11, together with RAD50 and NBS1 (MRE11-RAD50-NBS1 complex), locates to the end of the double-strand breaks (DSBs) locus (Kinner et al., 2008; Wang et al., 2014) and activates ATM through the interaction between ATM and NBS1 (Bian et al., 2019), triggering ataxia telangiectasia and ATR activation. Here, NBN is linked to ataxia telangiectasia.