In 1996, Stanford Medicine developmental biologist Matthew Scott and a team at University of California, San Francisco discovered that a defect in the hedgehog gene causes basal cell carcinoma.

Researchers, after a four-year search, identified a gene responsible for the most common form of skin cancer, basal cell carcinoma, through studies of both fruit flies and humans.

Basal cell carcinoma (BCC) is the most common form of skin cancer, and it is often linked to sun exposure.