This week brought 4 major new Nature papers on genomics. Over the next 20 years, the findings they report, will:
1) materially impact public health, and
2) change the expert witness testimony and tactics in personal injury litigation as to cancers and some other phenotypes.
In short, the studies trace how somatic mutations evolve from conception through death. All build on several years of prior studies and papers on somatic signature mutations by Michael Stratton, as well as many other scientists at Wellcome and other labs around the world.
Over the past decade, some prior GlobalTort posts have reported/commented on some of the prior papers. E.g. here, here and here. Over time, both plaintiffs and defendants will like and use some of the findings.
In this open access paper, a systems biologist provides an overview of all 4 papers. The graphic below illustrates the big picture of some of the findings.
