Mutations Quotations

Our experience in fooling around with the genes of mice has taught us that many of the traits that interest us are not definite products of specific mutations but emergent phenomena arising from extremely complex interactions between genes, environment, and life experience.

Although not yet routine, many cancer centers have the technology to sequence some or all of a patient's cancer genome. This can provide massive amounts of valuable information about your cancer, including whether you have genetic mutations and other abnormalities for which new drugs are available.

My idea right from the beginning, I guess, was to dismantle the immune system one gene at a time so we could track the mutations that cause problems.

There are certain mutations you can find across cancers in different organs.

Life has survived for more than three billion years because it is robust, and almost no mutations can easily outwit the defense mechanisms built up through eons of exposure to potential pathogens.

Nine years is a long time. Half the scientific community feels it might never happen. What we suggested in the paper is a kind of potential foothold situation where if it can actually get into the human population, it can undergo further mutations to optimize itself.

Only two mutations are needed for it to become easily transmissible among humans.

Having identified these previously unknown mutations in key cancer causing genes, we will hopefully enable the development of small molecules and antibodies to regulate their abnormal function and thus inhibit the growth of cancerous cells. This collaborative study exemplifies exactly what our coalition was formed to do -- leverage our individual institution's expertise to collectively discover new druggable targets through genome sequencing and functional genomic analysis.

We now see that natural selection *is* working to conserve this unpartnered region of the Y, ... If mutations do occur in any of these genes, they don't seem to pass on in the lineage. This is a clear example of how evolution is not just about moving ahead, it's also about not falling behind.

We know the virus is changing. We're watching little mutations occur all the time -- that's what flu viruses do.

We don't know how many more mutations are required. But at this point, we still have some time.

Even though mutations per se may arise in fewer numbers in humans than in chimpanzees, those that matter will quickly spread. Mutations that are advantageous to the human, such as intelligence, probably are under strong natural selection.

It would appear that two mutations could change the specificity dramatically going from avian to human.

A lot of human diseases are caused by multiple gene mutations that are difficult to identify.

Although there has been solid theory on the matter for quite some time, these results provide the first definitive proof at the molecular level that sexual reproduction magnifies the efficiency of natural selection in eliminating deleterious mutations from populations.

The obvious issue that we and others, no doubt including the present authors, will wish to establish is what are the selective advantages of the mutations that are seen,

The complete sequence of the 1918 virus, demonstrating its avian origin, and focusing on those mutations that differentiate avian from human strains will be immensely helpful as we try to understand the factors that govern the epidemic behavior of the current crop of avian H5 viruses.