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The Gene: An Intimate History

November 11, 2023

The Gene: An Intimate History is a book written by Siddhartha Mukherjee, an Indian-born American physician and oncologist. It was published on 17 May 2016 by Scribner.[1] The book chronicles the history of the gene and genetic research, all the way from Aristotle to Crick, Watson and Franklin and then the 21st century scientists who mapped the human genome. The book discusses the power of genetics in determining people's well-being and traits. It delves into the personal genetic history of Siddhartha Mukherjee's family, including mental illness. However, it is also a cautionary message toward not letting genetic predispositions define a person or their fate, a mentality that the author says led to the rise of eugenics in history.

The Gene: An Intimate History
Cover of The Gene: An Intimate History
AuthorSiddhartha Mukherjee
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
SubjectGenetics
PublisherScribner
Publication date
17 May 2016
Pages592
ISBN978-1-4767-3350-0 (Hardcover)

Awards and honours edit

PBS documentary edit

A documentary has been produced by Ken Burns with the same title The Gene: An Intimate History in 2020. Siddhartha Mukherjee served as a key commentator in the said documentary.

Episode 1 edit

In 2014, He Jiankui had intentionally altered the gene in the embryo of twin girls in the People's Republic of China. David Baltimore pontificates that it wasn't "medically necessary." Francis Collins says it would have been illegal in the United States.

KIF1A is a gene that make motor protein in the body.

The idea that in each sperm or egg is a tiny person is known as pre-formationism. Theodor Boveri was an early biologist studying chromosomes in 1900s. Later, Danish researcher Wilhelm Johannsen called the sites of heredity on chromosomes "genes."

Thomas Morgan discovers that some traits are linked in fruit flies.

David Botstein sought to trace the gene causing Huntington's disease. Genetic markers allow us to track genes. Eventually, biologists found the CAG chemical phrase on human Chromosome 4 responsible for Huntington's disease.

In 1971, Paul Berg conducted experiments in which he used "bacterial scissors."

In 1975, the Asilomar Conference on Recombinant DNA was held to discuss the implications of preventing and curing genetic diseases. One interviewee in the 1970s wondered if recombinant DNA experiments could produce "Frankensteins."

Venture capitalist Bob Swanson meets with Herbert Boyer in the 1970s to lay out his vision for Genentech. Their first drug would be insulin to help diabetic people.

Episode 2 edit

By the 1980s, scientists had only uncovered about 100 actual genes. In 1986, hundreds of biologists convene at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) in Long Island, New York, to discuss a plan to read out the entire human genome. In the late 1970s, Frederick Sanger and Walter Gilbert had pioneered DNA sequencing.

Bernadine Healy was the NIH director at the inception of the Human Genome Project.

François Jacob and Jacques Monod were working in Paris in the 1950s and 1960s; their goal was to understand transcription (going from DNA to RNA).

SMN2 is a gene that when mutated can cause spinal muscular atrophy (SMA).

Although some genetic diseases are caused by defect in a single gene, Richard Klausner points out that the situation gets complicated because some diseases are caused by defects in many genes. David B. Goldstein (geneticist) says that there are over 100 genes that increase the risk of schizophrenia.

In 2013, Lettie Lassiter was diagnosed with stage 4 gallbladder cancer.[9] Later, this cancer spreads to her brain!

Nusinersen is a medication used in treating spinal muscular atrophy (SMA).

Jesse Gelsinger who was going to die because of a liver disease known as OTC (Ornithine transcarbamylase deficiency) agreed to receive gene therapy from James Wilson. The therapy didn't succeed and Gelsinger died anyway.

Eric Lander explain that bacteria can edit DNA.

CRISPR is like a "biometric identification system" according to Samuel H. Sternberg. Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna have collaborated on CRISPR work.

A dwarf mother has a "precarious feeling" that CRISPR may be used to produce children with normal heights; she prefers having dwarf children like she is.

He Jiankui has been vilified for editing the genes of Lulu and Nana to give them protection against HIV. He Jiankui, who is interviewed in this documentary, vouches that his sole objective "was to prevent HIV infection. The girls are safe, healthy." He had performed pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD). His competitor peers had hostile questions for He at a conference. Aside from He's Chinese peers, Eric Lander calls He's breakthrough "unethical."

Cast edit

Reviews edit

Bryan Appleyard of The Sunday Times called it "Dramatic and precise... thrilling and comprehensive account of what seems certain to be the most radical, controversial and, to borrow from the subtitle, intimate science of our time. He is a natural storyteller... A page-turner... Read this book and steel yourself for what comes next."[11]

Andrew Solomon wrote in the Washington Post: "With a marriage of architectural precision and luscious narrative, an eye for both the paradoxical detail and the unsettling irony, and a genius for locating the emotional truths buried in chemical abstractions, Mukherjee leaves you feeling as though you’ve just aced a college course for which you’d been afraid to register – and enjoyed every minute of it."[12]

Criticism and response edit

In his 2016 article 'Same but different', an excerpt from the chapter "The First Derivative of Identity" of this book, in The New Yorker, he attributed the most important genetic functions to epigenetic factors (such as histone modification and DNA methylation).

"Chance events—injuries, infections, infatuations; the haunting trill of that particular nocturne—impinge on one twin and not on the other. Genes are turned on and off in response to these events, as epigenetic marks are gradually layered above genes, etching the genome with its own scars, calluses, and freckles."[13]

This analogy based on his mother and her twin sister, who have distinct personalities, was critiqued by geneticists such as Mark Ptashne, at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, and John Greally, at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, because of over emphasis on histone modification and DNA methylation, when they really are only minor contributors. Steven Henikoff, at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, opined that, "Mukherjee seemed not to realize that transcription factors occupy the top of the hierarchy of epigenetic information... histone modifications at most act as cogs in the machinery."[14] In response, Mukherjee did admit "he now realizes that he erred by omitting key areas of the science, but that he didn’t mean to mislead. 'I sincerely thought that I had done it justice.' "[14]

References edit

  1. ^ The Gene. "The Gene: An Intimate History". Retrieved 17 May 2016.
  2. ^ "Shortlist for The Royal Society Insight Investment Science Book Prize 2016 unveiled". The Royal Society. 6 August 2016.
  3. ^ "Nobel laureate Svetlana Alexievich heads longlist for UK's top nonfiction award". 20 September 2016.
  4. ^ "10 Best Books of 2016". The Washington Post. 17 November 2016.
  5. ^ "Goodreads Choice Award". Goodreads. Retrieved 26 April 2018.
  6. ^ Danuta Kean (14 March 2017). "Wellcome prize shortlist announced: books that 'will change lives'". The Guardian. Retrieved 24 April 2017.
  7. ^ "PEN/E.O. Wilson Prize for Literary Science Writing". Goodreads. Retrieved 26 April 2018.
  8. ^ DeSimone, Bailey (1 December 2017). "The Key Reporter - Siddhartha Mukherjee". keyreporter.org. The Phi Beta Kappa Society. The Key Reporter.
  9. ^ "PBS documentary highlights the promise of genomic testing". Cancer Treatment Centers of America. Retrieved 19 December 2021.
  10. ^ "Professor Matthew Wood". University of Oxford. Retrieved 19 December 2021.
  11. ^ Appleyard, Bryan (22 May 2016). "Books: The Gene: An Intimate History by Siddhartha Mukherjee". The Times. The Times & The Sunday Times. Retrieved 30 September 2016.
  12. ^ Solomon, Andrew. "When we unlock the secrets of our genes, what do we do with that knowledge?". 12 May 2016. Retrieved 30 September 2016.
  13. ^ Mukherjee, S. The Gene: An Intimate History. US: Scribner. ISBN 978-1-4767-3350-0.
  14. ^ a b Woolston, Chris (2016). "Researcher under fire for New Yorker epigenetics article". Nature. 533(7603): 295–295. doi:10.1038/533295f.

External links edit

  • Ken Burns presents The Gene: An Intimate History
  • "Siddhartha Mukherjee: The Gene". YouTube. Chicago Humanities Festival. 16 July 2017.
  • "From Genes to Cancer and Back - Siddhartha Mukherjee". YouTube. National Human Genome Research Institute. 27 November 2019.

November 11, 2023
gene, intimate, history, this, article, needs, additional, citations, verification, please, help, improve, this, article, adding, citations, reliable, sources, unsourced, material, challenged, removed, find, sources, news, newspapers, books, scholar, jstor, se. This article needs additional citations for verification Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources Unsourced material may be challenged and removed Find sources The Gene An Intimate History news newspapers books scholar JSTOR September 2016 Learn how and when to remove this template message The Gene An Intimate History is a book written by Siddhartha Mukherjee an Indian born American physician and oncologist It was published on 17 May 2016 by Scribner 1 The book chronicles the history of the gene and genetic research all the way from Aristotle to Crick Watson and Franklin and then the 21st century scientists who mapped the human genome The book discusses the power of genetics in determining people s well being and traits It delves into the personal genetic history of Siddhartha Mukherjee s family including mental illness However it is also a cautionary message toward not letting genetic predispositions define a person or their fate a mentality that the author says led to the rise of eugenics in history The Gene An Intimate HistoryCover of The Gene An Intimate HistoryAuthorSiddhartha MukherjeeCountryUnited StatesLanguageEnglishSubjectGeneticsPublisherScribnerPublication date17 May 2016Pages592ISBN978 1 4767 3350 0 Hardcover Contents 1 Awards and honours 2 PBS documentary 2 1 Episode 1 2 2 Episode 2 2 3 Cast 3 Reviews 4 Criticism and response 5 References 6 External linksAwards and honours edit2016 Royal Society Prizes for Science Books shortlist 2 2016 Baillie Gifford Prize for Non Fiction longlist 3 2016 Washington Post s 10 Best Books of 2016 The Gene 4 2016 Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Science amp Technology 5 2017 Wellcome Book Prize shortlist 6 2017 PEN E O Wilson Prize for Literary Science Writing Nominee for Longlist 7 2017 Phi Beta Kappa Society Book Award in Science 8 PBS documentary editA documentary has been produced by Ken Burns with the same title The Gene An Intimate History in 2020 Siddhartha Mukherjee served as a key commentator in the said documentary Episode 1 edit In 2014 He Jiankui had intentionally altered the gene in the embryo of twin girls in the People s Republic of China David Baltimore pontificates that it wasn t medically necessary Francis Collins says it would have been illegal in the United States KIF1A is a gene that make motor protein in the body The idea that in each sperm or egg is a tiny person is known as pre formationism Theodor Boveri was an early biologist studying chromosomes in 1900s Later Danish researcher Wilhelm Johannsen called the sites of heredity on chromosomes genes Thomas Morgan discovers that some traits are linked in fruit flies David Botstein sought to trace the gene causing Huntington s disease Genetic markers allow us to track genes Eventually biologists found the CAG chemical phrase on human Chromosome 4 responsible for Huntington s disease In 1971 Paul Berg conducted experiments in which he used bacterial scissors In 1975 the Asilomar Conference on Recombinant DNA was held to discuss the implications of preventing and curing genetic diseases One interviewee in the 1970s wondered if recombinant DNA experiments could produce Frankensteins Venture capitalist Bob Swanson meets with Herbert Boyer in the 1970s to lay out his vision for Genentech Their first drug would be insulin to help diabetic people Episode 2 edit By the 1980s scientists had only uncovered about 100 actual genes In 1986 hundreds of biologists convene at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory CSHL in Long Island New York to discuss a plan to read out the entire human genome In the late 1970s Frederick Sanger and Walter Gilbert had pioneered DNA sequencing Bernadine Healy was the NIH director at the inception of the Human Genome Project Francois Jacob and Jacques Monod were working in Paris in the 1950s and 1960s their goal was to understand transcription going from DNA to RNA SMN2 is a gene that when mutated can cause spinal muscular atrophy SMA Although some genetic diseases are caused by defect in a single gene Richard Klausner points out that the situation gets complicated because some diseases are caused by defects in many genes David B Goldstein geneticist says that there are over 100 genes that increase the risk of schizophrenia In 2013 Lettie Lassiter was diagnosed with stage 4 gallbladder cancer 9 Later this cancer spreads to her brain Nusinersen is a medication used in treating spinal muscular atrophy SMA Jesse Gelsinger who was going to die because of a liver disease known as OTC Ornithine transcarbamylase deficiency agreed to receive gene therapy from James Wilson The therapy didn t succeed and Gelsinger died anyway Eric Lander explain that bacteria can edit DNA CRISPR is like a biometric identification system according to Samuel H Sternberg Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna have collaborated on CRISPR work A dwarf mother has a precarious feeling that CRISPR may be used to produce children with normal heights she prefers having dwarf children like she is He Jiankui has been vilified for editing the genes of Lulu and Nana to give them protection against HIV He Jiankui who is interviewed in this documentary vouches that his sole objective was to prevent HIV infection The girls are safe healthy He had performed pre implantation genetic diagnosis PGD His competitor peers had hostile questions for He at a conference Aside from He s Chinese peers Eric Lander calls He s breakthrough unethical Cast edit Wendy Chung Andrew Berry biologist Robin Marantz Henig Eric Lander Matthew Cobb Shirley Tilghman Adam Cohen scientist Nancy Wexler James F Gusella Ellen Jorgensen Richard Klausner Arthur Caplan Edward Wild Huntington s Disease Centre Matt Ridley Craig Venter Aristides Patrinos Thomas O Crawford neurologist Adrian R Krainer Kenneth Fischbeck Matthew Wood Professor of Neuroscience at the University of Oxford 10 Stacey Gabriel Broad Institute David B Goldstein geneticist Luis A Diaz Haritha Pabbathi Matthew Cobb Joseph L Graves Jr James Wilson scientist Alexis Thompson Feinberg School of Medicine Erica Esrick MD Jennifer Doudna Henry Greely Feng Zhang Alondra Nelson He JiankuiReviews editBryan Appleyard of The Sunday Times called it Dramatic and precise thrilling and comprehensive account of what seems certain to be the most radical controversial and to borrow from the subtitle intimate science of our time He is a natural storyteller A page turner Read this book and steel yourself for what comes next 11 Andrew Solomon wrote in the Washington Post With a marriage of architectural precision and luscious narrative an eye for both the paradoxical detail and the unsettling irony and a genius for locating the emotional truths buried in chemical abstractions Mukherjee leaves you feeling as though you ve just aced a college course for which you d been afraid to register and enjoyed every minute of it 12 Criticism and response editIn his 2016 article Same but different an excerpt from the chapter The First Derivative of Identity of this book in The New Yorker he attributed the most important genetic functions to epigenetic factors such as histone modification and DNA methylation Chance events injuries infections infatuations the haunting trill of that particular nocturne impinge on one twin and not on the other Genes are turned on and off in response to these events as epigenetic marks are gradually layered above genes etching the genome with its own scars calluses and freckles 13 This analogy based on his mother and her twin sister who have distinct personalities was critiqued by geneticists such as Mark Ptashne at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and John Greally at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine because of over emphasis on histone modification and DNA methylation when they really are only minor contributors Steven Henikoff at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center opined that Mukherjee seemed not to realize that transcription factors occupy the top of the hierarchy of epigenetic information histone modifications at most act as cogs in the machinery 14 In response Mukherjee did admit he now realizes that he erred by omitting key areas of the science but that he didn t mean to mislead I sincerely thought that I had done it justice 14 References edit The Gene The Gene An Intimate History Retrieved 17 May 2016 Shortlist for The Royal Society Insight Investment Science Book Prize 2016 unveiled The Royal Society 6 August 2016 Nobel laureate Svetlana Alexievich heads longlist for UK s top nonfiction award 20 September 2016 10 Best Books of 2016 The Washington Post 17 November 2016 Goodreads Choice Award Goodreads Retrieved 26 April 2018 Danuta Kean 14 March 2017 Wellcome prize shortlist announced books that will change lives The Guardian Retrieved 24 April 2017 PEN E O Wilson Prize for Literary Science Writing Goodreads Retrieved 26 April 2018 DeSimone Bailey 1 December 2017 The Key Reporter Siddhartha Mukherjee keyreporter org The Phi Beta Kappa Society The Key Reporter PBS documentary highlights the promise of genomic testing Cancer Treatment Centers of America Retrieved 19 December 2021 Professor Matthew Wood University of Oxford Retrieved 19 December 2021 Appleyard Bryan 22 May 2016 Books The Gene An Intimate History by Siddhartha Mukherjee The Times The Times amp The Sunday Times Retrieved 30 September 2016 Solomon Andrew When we unlock the secrets of our genes what do we do with that knowledge 12 May 2016 Retrieved 30 September 2016 Mukherjee S The Gene An Intimate History US Scribner ISBN 978 1 4767 3350 0 a b Woolston Chris 2016 Researcher under fire for New Yorker epigenetics article Nature 533 7603 295 295 doi 10 1038 533295f External links editKen Burns presents The Gene An Intimate History Siddhartha Mukherjee The Gene YouTube Chicago Humanities Festival 16 July 2017 From Genes to Cancer and Back Siddhartha Mukherjee YouTube National Human Genome Research Institute 27 November 2019 Portal nbsp Books Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title The Gene An Intimate History amp oldid 1132208103, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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