ATM and ataxia telangiectasia: ATM was first discovered in patients suffering from ataxia-telangiectasia (A-T), an autosomal-recessive genetic disease characterized by dilated blood vessels, neurodegeneration, immunodeficiency and predisposition to certain cancers (Boder and Sedgwick, 1958; Chun and Gatti, 2004; Chiam et al., 2011; Reiman et al., 2011; Taylor et al., 2015).