- The Lafora disease gene product laforin interacts with HIRIP5, a phylogenetically conserved protein containing a NifU-like domain. Ganesh, S., Tsurutani, N., Suzuki, T., Ueda, K., Agarwala, K.L., Osada, H., Delgado-Escueta, A.V., Yamakawa, K. Hum. Mol. Genet. (2003)