Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the International Epidemiological Association © The Author 2007; all rights reserved.
Commentary: From phenotype, to genotype, to gene–environment interaction and risk for complex diseases
E-mail: olden@niehs.nih.gov
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‘No one supposes that all the individuals of the same species are cast in the same actual mould. These individual differences are of the highest importance to us, for they are often inherited.’ (The Origin of Species, Charles Darwin, 1859)
The 1979 publication of the article by Lower et al.1 on ‘N-acetyltransferase phenotype and risk in urinary bladder cancer: approaches in molecular epidemiology’ generated considerable interest and enthusiasm for research to understand gene–gene and gene–environment interactions in human health and disease. This seminal publication in the Environmental Health Perspectives transformed population health research and provided the foundation for the massive sequencing efforts to identify genetic variations involved in modulating human response to drugs and other environmental xenobiotics.2–4 The study of Lower et al.1 was prompted