Author Archives: DWN

As these GEITP pages have discussed a number of times, gene-environment interactions are best studied (in vivo) in the intact animal (or in clinical studies, i.e. in humans). Many labs study a biological model system in an isolated organ or … Continue reading →

Evolution of life on Earth is usually DIVERGENT, i.e. one starts from a simple string of genes, A-C-E, which evolves (by gene duplications, inversions, insertions, deletions, rearrangments) into something more complex such as A-B-C-D-E. On the other hand, CONVERGENT evolution … Continue reading →

Because genome-wide association studies (GWAS) are being performed with larger and larger numbers of individuals (cohorts), increasing numbers of small-effect genes (genotype) are becoming identified. Each of these genes are associated (statistically significantly) with the trait (phenotype) of “height.” At … Continue reading →

What makes a “good scientist?” Attached is a 3-page editorial on this topic. One of the coauthors teaches leader­ship skills and works with “troubled departments”. Toxic research environments share a handful of operational flaws and cognitive biases. Researchers and institutional … Continue reading →

Dear Dr. Nebert, this is a very interesting paper – thank you. I agree with the authors, for most part. In addition to the weakness that they reported, I think DIP-seq has its inherent drawbacks. Without bisulfite modification, the methylation … Continue reading →

These two very recent publications [see attached] are the latest in a long series –– on the topic of the Linear No-Threshold (LNT) Model, which (since about 2o11) has been carefully dissected historically by Ed Calabrese (School of Public Health, … Continue reading →

We also learned a similar lesson regarding artifacts through the history of proteomics technologies –– particularly from protein-interactions studies that rely on immunoprecipitation as the first step. This ultimately led to a database of “usual suspects” that was later more … Continue reading →

This BREAKTHROUGH paper (reported today in FRONTLINE GENOMICS) is very important to those in the field (e.g. Sean Zhang), so I have moved it “to the front of the QUEUE.” There is nothing worse than spending a lot of time, … Continue reading →

As these GEITP pages keep harping on –– the factors that contribute to any trait (response to a drug or environmental toxicant, hair color, height, blood pressure, risk of type-2 diabetes, risk of autism spectrum disorder, etc.) include: genotype (DNA … Continue reading →

This is just what my late son had been interested in, and predicting, since about 2000. (It was part of his job.) Solar activity (sunspot frequency) has become incredibly quiet during Cycles 23 and especially Cycle 24. The last time … Continue reading →