tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1812431336777691886.post8241699527481562996..comments2024-02-29T03:57:00.088-05:00Comments on The Mermaid's Tale: Exploring genomic causal 'precision'Anne Buchananhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09212151396672651221noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1812431336777691886.post-71343662636378757502015-02-27T14:35:56.415-05:002015-02-27T14:35:56.415-05:00Thanks for the comment. I think we face a kind of...Thanks for the comment. I think we face a kind of multibody prediction problem as I'll say in a post next week. If we knew enough, maybe the interactions and feedbacks in a fetus's known risk-factors (if they, including epigenetic ones, perhaps, could be assayed) could have some predictive power for short-term outcomes. But it'll never be able, not even in principle, to anticipate future decades' behavior and environmental exposures. Maybe a better way would be to simulate the 'ramp up' to outcome by which we know that prediction is better the closer to the outcome, but the farther in advance it can be predicted the more chance to prevent?Ken Weisshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02049713123559138421noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1812431336777691886.post-6623234189112835192015-02-27T14:01:09.774-05:002015-02-27T14:01:09.774-05:00Ken, thank you for another cogent piece on the co...Ken, thank you for another cogent piece on the complexities of genetics, and prediction of phenotypes, etc. The example you provided suggests the use of your simulation software in exploring what i'll refer to as "basic" genetics, but might it be useful in clinical contexts; eg, exploring prediction of health outcomes, the (non-economic) value of sequencing tumors to select chemotherapy, etc? Also, one of the genomics topics that troubles me most: prenatal omics testing that will be used to predict phenotypes of fetuses that otherwise seem to be normal? In both cases the complexities can be immense...and the inertia of Omics seems to be driving these activities forward without evidence of their reliability/value.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07853324545019963274noreply@blogger.com