Researchers at the Catalan Institute of Oncology have discovered a new role for free 40S ribosomes as guardians of genetic information required to synthesize themselves. This mechanism, which relies on a complex of free 40S ribosomes and the RNA binding protein LARP1, is independent from the 40S ribosomes role in protein synthesis, which can be potentially targeted as a cancer therapy. Moreover, together with researchers at the IDIBAPS, Barcelona, they also found that the 40S-LARP1 complex may be a potential point of intervention for the treatment of 5q- syndrome, a rare sporadic genetic disease, which they demonstrate is causally linked to the loss of LARP1 and free 40S ribosomes