In 1968 Motoo Kimura published a short article in Nature in which he argued that “most mutations produced by nucleotide replacement are almost neutral in natural selection”. This fantastic paper is generally viewed as having established the “neutral theory” of molecular evolution, whose central principle was set out by Jack King and Lester Jukes in a Science paper the [...]
Yesterday I got incensed about a quote in a story in the NYT from a prominent autism researcher about the significance of findings in their recent paper (which described the sequencing of protein-coding genes from autistic individuals, their parents and siblings). The statement that so offended me, from the lead author of the paper, was that [...]
[UPDATE: There is a followup to this post here.] Last week Nature published the results of three studies (1,2,3) looking at the sequences of protein-coding genes from hundreds of individuals with autism and their parents. The main results are that there is a higher rate of de novo mutations in affected individuals, that these primarily [...]
There’s been a lot of media coverage of and discussion about a recent paper from Bert Vogelstein and Victor Velvulescu about the utility of whole-genome sequencing to predict disease. Using previously published data on disease occurrence in identical twins, and a relatively simple mathematical model, the authors conclude that not only isn’t sequencing very useful for [...]
PLoS Genetics just published a paper from my lab describing our analysis of the binding and activity of a remarkable protein, known as Zelda, that appears to be a master regulator of genome activation in the earliest stages of Drosophila development, and thereby plays a major role in shaping the form and function of the mature [...]
The New York Times is fronting a story that combines two of my favorite subjects – DNA and baseball. Unfortunately, the story is ridiculously alarmist, and either willfully or ignorantly conflates DNA paternity/maternity tests with tests designed to extract other information from a person’s genome. The plug for the piece is that Major League Baseball [...]
While I was poking around for stories about ACTN3, I came upon this Slate piece from the usually reliable Will Saletan about the ACTN3 test and race. The story has a generally accurate discussion about ACTN3 allele frequencies and race, and I agree with most of what he has to say. But Saletan makes a [...]
A lot has been written about the genetic test for ACTN3 being marketed by ATLAS Research as a way to direct ones children towards the appropriate athletic endeavors since a story on the test appeared in the NY Times last week. Daniel MacArthur, in particular, has done a great job explaining the science behind the [...]
A reader sent me the following letter sent out by Fresno County Superior Court judicial court candidate Jim Kelley in his campaign against Douglas Treisman: October 28, 2008 Dear Voter: My name is Jim Kelley and I am a candidate for Fresno County Superior Court Judge. Judges play an important role in our community, yet [...]
A study published last week in the Journal of Fish Biology confirmed that an earlier report of parthanogenesis in sharks was not a fluke. Chapman DD et al. (2008). Parthenogenesis in a large-bodied requiem shark, the blacktip Carcharhinus limbatus. J. Fish Biol. 73(6):1473-1477. (No link – I only link to open access articles). This is [...]
I'm a biologist at UC Berkeley and an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. I work primarily on flies, and my research encompases evolution, development, genetics, genomics, chemical ecology and behavior. I am a strong proponent of open science, and a co-founder of the Public Library of Science. And most importantly, I am a Red Sox fan. (More about me here).
I can be reached at:
mbeisen at berkeley.edu
and @mbeisen on Twitter
