<p style="text-align:start">Children of Hispanic/Latino origin are 30-40% more likely to get Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) than non-Hispanic white children. However, the exact genetic basis and cause of that increased risk are unknown. Now researchers have revealed a key genetic variant contributing towards the increased risk, as well as details about the biological basis of ALL. The research team focused on the <em>IKZF1 </em>gene, known to relate to ALL but never before linked with ethnic risk disparities. Using genetic fine-mapping analysis, they independently analyzed each position along the gene—known as a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP)—to determine whether having a certain variant increased ALL risk. They found three independent SNPs linked to higher ALL incidence, one of which was present in about 30% of people of Hispanic/Latino origin in the U.S. and less than 1% of people of primarily European origin. Although overall risk for the disease is low across all racial/ethnic groups, children with that gene variant, located at SNP rs76880433, were 1.44 times as likely to develop ALL as children without the variant. They also found that the risk variant reduced chromatin accessibility, preventing <em>IKZF1 </em>proteins from being fully expressed. In experiments with stem cells, the team found that “knocking out” the <em>IKZF1 </em>gene caused B-cell development to stall in its early stages.</p>