ELF5 and cancer: As Elf5 has an important regulatory role in stem/progenitor cell activities in many other epithelial tissues during development and regeneration [4, 5] and loss of Elf5 can lead to defects in epithelial development [31] and tumourigenesis [40], therefore, these data provide an important foundation for further analyses of the role of Elf5 in many areas of research, including stem cell and cancer biology, regenerative medicine and ageing.