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Study the forest, not only the trees: Environmental exposures, not genomes, generate most health disparities

As sequencing and analysis techniques provide increasingly detailed data at a plummeting cost, it is increasingly popular to seek the answers to medical and public health challenges in the DNA sequences of affected populations. This is methodologically attractive in its simplicity, but a genomics-on...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Thompson, Taylor V., Crocker, Katherine C.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9437270/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36061175
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fgene.2022.817899
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author Thompson, Taylor V.
Crocker, Katherine C.
author_facet Thompson, Taylor V.
Crocker, Katherine C.
author_sort Thompson, Taylor V.
collection PubMed
description As sequencing and analysis techniques provide increasingly detailed data at a plummeting cost, it is increasingly popular to seek the answers to medical and public health challenges in the DNA sequences of affected populations. This is methodologically attractive in its simplicity, but a genomics-only approach ignores environmentally mediated health disparities, which are well-documented at multiple national and global scales. While genetic differences exist among populations, it is unlikely that these differences overcome social and environmental factors in driving the gap in health outcomes between privileged and oppressed communities. We advocate for following the lead of communities in addressing their self-identified interests, rather than treating widespread suffering as a convenient natural experiment.
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spelling pubmed-94372702022-09-03 Study the forest, not only the trees: Environmental exposures, not genomes, generate most health disparities Thompson, Taylor V. Crocker, Katherine C. Front Genet Genetics As sequencing and analysis techniques provide increasingly detailed data at a plummeting cost, it is increasingly popular to seek the answers to medical and public health challenges in the DNA sequences of affected populations. This is methodologically attractive in its simplicity, but a genomics-only approach ignores environmentally mediated health disparities, which are well-documented at multiple national and global scales. While genetic differences exist among populations, it is unlikely that these differences overcome social and environmental factors in driving the gap in health outcomes between privileged and oppressed communities. We advocate for following the lead of communities in addressing their self-identified interests, rather than treating widespread suffering as a convenient natural experiment. Frontiers Media S.A. 2022-08-19 /pmc/articles/PMC9437270/ /pubmed/36061175 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fgene.2022.817899 Text en Copyright © 2022 Thompson and Crocker. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Genetics
Thompson, Taylor V.
Crocker, Katherine C.
Study the forest, not only the trees: Environmental exposures, not genomes, generate most health disparities
title Study the forest, not only the trees: Environmental exposures, not genomes, generate most health disparities
title_full Study the forest, not only the trees: Environmental exposures, not genomes, generate most health disparities
title_fullStr Study the forest, not only the trees: Environmental exposures, not genomes, generate most health disparities
title_full_unstemmed Study the forest, not only the trees: Environmental exposures, not genomes, generate most health disparities
title_short Study the forest, not only the trees: Environmental exposures, not genomes, generate most health disparities
title_sort study the forest, not only the trees: environmental exposures, not genomes, generate most health disparities
topic Genetics
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9437270/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36061175
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fgene.2022.817899
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