A Scientist Finds Her Child’s Rare Brain Illness Stems from the Gene She Studies

Re:A Scientist Finds Her Child’s Rare Brain Illness Stems fr... by mirimir on Saturday May 19, 2018 @01:53AM (#17106831)

Sure, spontaneous point mutations are very common. They account for many spontaneous abortions. But spontaneous point mutations in the Forkhead box G1 (FOXG1) gene are not very common. And scientists researching FOXG1 are also not very common.

But then, correlation is not causation. And this could well reflect selection bias.

And unless she was working with some vector carrying defective mouse FOXG1 genes, the probability that this particular defect would get transmitted is small.

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Re:A Scientist Finds Her Child’s Rare Brain Illness Stems fr... by SiempreViernes on Saturday May 19, 2018 @08:19AM (#17107593)

I take the title as telling me there are a lot of lab biology going on in the world (and that many of them are women).

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Re:A Scientist Finds Her Child’s Rare Brain Illness Stems fr... by Retric on Saturday May 19, 2018 @08:59AM (#17107713)

I think your correct. 3 billion base pairs so with ~3 mutations per person it's 1/billion per child per location. But, lots of children (~2 per researcher and many researchers), lots of valid locations as researchers study many specific locations etc.

IMO, odds of something like this happening is fairly high.

PS: I don't think gender means anything here as the same story would get out if it was a male researcher.

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Re:A Scientist Finds Her Child’s Rare Brain Illness Stems fr... by arkades on Saturday May 19, 2018 @09:35AM (#17107840)

It’s also not a random draw. Genes that have a significant impact on human development are the ones that cause disease - and by extension, draw the attention of researchers.

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