Sections of DNA once dismissed as dormant and useless could in fact be recruited to fight certain types of drug-resistant blood cancers, new research has revealed.

Known as 'junk' DNA, these bits of DNA don't encode proteins, so were historically dismissed as having no role in biological processes. Scientists have since realized non-coding parts of the genome are more important than we thought , playing critical roles in gene regulation .

One category of non-coding DNA is the transposable element (TE): sequences that can cut themselves free from one part of the genome and insert themselves into another.

An international team led by researchers from King's College London (KCL) has now found that stubbornly persistent blood cancers can 'wake up' TEs as part of the mechanisms

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