Both the first and second rounds of sphere formation assays suggested that the stemness of breast cancer cells was enhanced or abrogated after the overexpression or depletion of TMEM120B in MCF-7 and SK-BR-3 or MDA-231 and MDA-453 cells (Fig. 3D-E and Additional file 3: Fig. S3B-C), respectively. The gene discussed is TMEM120B; the disease is breast cancer.