Gene responsible for most malignant melanomas is discovered

Scientists working on the cancer genome project announced this week that they have made an “unexpectedly early” discovery of the mutant gene responsible for 70% of all malignant melanomas. The project, which is funded by the Wellcome Trust, is based at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Hinxton, Cambridgeshire.

The researchers predict that the finding, which occurs in the early stages of a project involving 50 million experiments, will mean that the “vast majority” of the genes involved in the most common cancers will be identified …