Most of our knowledge about the role of interferon signaling in response to IR-induced DNA damage comes from studies in cancers where it is often linked to cGAS/STING signaling (Deng et al., 2014; Goedegebuure et al., 2021; Storozynsky and Hitt, 2020; Wilkins et al., 2019). The gene discussed is CGAS; the disease is cancer.