The Misunderstood Gene
This is a book review that is so appropriate for our times that I had to include it. We are so focused on looking at our genes for the answer to all of human diseases. The author, Michel Morange, takes a very realistic view at what we really have now that the genome project has been completed–no more than we did before! The review is a little long, but definitely worth the time.
(review by Fintan R. Steele, PhD in MedGenMed, May 29, 2001) The publishing of the “complete” human genome sequence earlier this year was heralded with the kind of breathless superlatives usually reserved for Chinese restaurant menus: incredible, astounding, awesome, unequaled, and so forth. Not only the media but scientists who should know better proclaimed the “deciphering of the book of life,” promising the imminent end to human disease and aging and the final key to the secret of human nature. In The Misunderstood Gene, Michel Morange, Director of the Center for the Study of the History of Science at the Ecole Normale Superieure in Paris, France, and author of A History of Molecular Biology, effectively tempers the extreme enthusiasm with a hard look at how impoverished our genetic “breakthrough” truly is, and even how dangerous a little knowledge can be.In short, Morange argues that all living creatures are more than the sum total of their genes. Granted, this is hardly a novel position for anyone but the most hardened reductionist to hold. But Morange skillfully weaves a picture of the incredibly complex molecular dance of life itself, in which genes are but a fairly small player. Deftly setting aside the popular understanding of genes that drives most press releases and news reports, Morange points out that the current emphasis on genes as opposed to proteins (where he locates the real work), tissues, organs, whole organisms and environments, is more of a reflection of the current state of experimental molecular science, not of the relative importance of genes to biological life. Not surprisingly, the marketplace has already grasped this truth: Witness the precipitous plunge in the value of genome science stocks. But the general public and many scientists have not yet learned, and Morange claims to be writing for them.This book is not a philosophical treatise: Morange describes and discusses specific examples from the current scientific literature of genes implicated in behavior, disease, development, aging, and death. Usually presented in the popular press as definitive studies, “genes for” these things (an incorrect usage, as Morange points out) are, in fact, only teasingly suggestive of some kind of causality. Morange hammers his point home by citing mouse “knockout” studies, ie, mice in which a gene believed to be critical for some function is disabled and the knockout mouse analyzed for defects. In fact, thanks to the genomic redundancy that accompanies — and probably leads to — evolutionary complexity, many of these experiments have resulted in scientists desperately slicing their knockout mouse into increasingly smaller pieces to determine any kind of phenotypic change that would justify publication.What, then, are genes, if not the words of the book of life? Morange argues, in a way reminiscent of the Via Negativa of medieval philosophers and mystics discussing God, that there is no universally valid definition of the gene: We now only understand the gene by metaphors, none of which is perfectly correct or entirely complete. Indeed, without knowing the full context in which genes exist and to which they contribute, we can say very little, and should probably do even less. Although there are some obvious therapeutic actions we could consider in what is known as “somatic gene therapy,” Morange points to our basic genetic ignorance to sternly warn against germ-line gene therapy, despite the incredible temptation offered by available technology. He also roundly condemns eugenics: not just the straw horse associated with Nazi experimentation, but the “positive” eugenics creeping into our desire to make things better. Morange is not a Luddite, by any means, but he is a realist. This book should be required reading for anyone associated with genomic research or gene therapy, in addition to the general public that Morange claims as his target audience. In solemnly assaying the limits of our knowledge, he also successfully describes the incredible beauty and complexity of biological life. Indeed, Morange gives the reader the sense that “whatever is, is right,” but he also makes it very clear that our current limited knowledge cannot yet say with any certainty what truly “is.”