First the team demonstrated that miR-17 ~ 92 is expressed in higher-than-usual quantities in all human retinoblastomas examined and in some mouse retinoblastomas.

Previous work has shown that miR-17 ~ 92 can be involved in the survival of lymphoma and leukemia cells by reducing the levels of a tumor-suppressing protein called PTEN.

The authors engineered mice to express high levels of miR-17 ~ 92 in their retinas.