For decades, large stretches of human DNA were written off as genetic clutter, sequences that seemed to do nothing and carry no obvious purpose. Scientists even gave them a name: junk DNA. That label is now looking increasingly embarrassing.
A new study published in the journal Science Advances has found that some of these so-called junk DNA elements have, over millions of years, quietly worked their way into some of the most fundamental biological pathways in the human body, including ones that regulate cancer.
