We had great talks and discussions about cancer at a conference in Cetraro, Italy in last week (May 2026). John Mattick discussed non-coding DNA which constitutes almost all the DNA in our genome and plays an important role in regulation, yet was formally thought to be function-less ‘junk’. The following day, we had a lively and wide-ranging panel discussion about this non-coding DNA and the atavistic theory of cancer and the insights that this research provides for the evolution of life on Earth. The panelists were John Mattick from the University of New South Wales, Australia, Kimberly Bussey from Midwestern University and Charles Lineweaver from the Australian National University, moderated by Pauline Davies. The conference, “A Celebration of New Frontiers of Science,” was funded by a grant from the John Templeton Foundation.
ACE research featured at general science conference
