Uba1 is an E1 ubiquitin-activating enzyme that lies at the head of the bulk of ubiquitination cascades (another E1 enzyme, Uba6, also has similar activity but it is only responsible for a tiny minority of ubiquitination events); Uba1 may also be a viable therapeutic target for the treatment of cancers, neurodegenerative disorders, and other disease states (reviewed in ref. 10–14). This evidence concerns the gene UBA1 and cancer.