CELF1, primarily acknowledged as a vital regulator in the development of myotonic dystrophy type 1 (DM1) disease (Lutz et al., 2023), has now been associated with liver dysfunction (Tan et al., 2022; Ye et al., 2024) and specific cancer types (Xia et al., 2015; Wang et al., 2016; Talwar et al., 2013; Huang et al., 2020), highlighting its multifaceted roles. The gene discussed is CELF1; the disease is myotonic dystrophy type 1.