By sequencing clones obtained from a size-fractionated myeloid leukemia cell line cDNA library, Nagase et al. (1996) cloned PHF16, which they designated KIAA0215. The deduced protein contains 823 amino acids. Northern blot analysis detected PHF16 in all human tissues and cell lines examined.

By radiation hybrid and human-rodent hybrid analysis, Nagase et al. (1996) mapped the PHF16 gene to chromosomes 3 and X. By genomic sequence analysis, Tzouanacou et al. (2003) mapped the PHF16 gene to chromosome X. They mapped the mouse Phf16 gene to a syntenic region on mouse chromosome X.