To define epigenetic and transcriptional regulatory programs required for PDAC stem cell function, we used an RNA-sequencing (RNA-seq) dataset8 to identify factors significantly enriched in the therapy-resistant MSI2+ stem cell fraction7 of primary tumors from the KrasG12D/+; p53f/f; Ptf1a-Cre (KPf/fC) model of pancreatic cancer (Fig. 1a)21–24. The gene discussed is PTF1A; the disease is familial pancreatic carcinoma.