From: jeffrey epstein leevacation®gmail.com> To: Eva Dubin Subject: Fwd: research proposal - breast cancer genetics Date: Wed, 16 Feb 2011 19:08:33 +0000 Sony for all the typos .Sent from my iPhone Begin forwarded message: From: Date: February 16, 2011 1:59:51 PM EST To: [email protected] Subject: Re: research proposal - breast cancer genetics I do not know Dr. Dottino, however what he is suggesting is not novel in itself - before a gene can be considered causative or contributory it must first be established that it is truly the case. This process is usually done in a linkage analysis within a family (or exposure) cluster. In this case it appears he has identified a cluster and is looking to make the linkage and establish the causal relationship. While the report is not very detailed, it appears that routine scientific technologies will be used. Just looking through the literature on pubmed, I found at least 10 (and then stopped looking) other scientists who had undertaken such linkage analysis in breast cancer. It is certainly the 'holy grail" to try to find the right gene or the single causative gene for breast cancer. To date, there have only been associations (BCR1, 2). It isn't clear to me what happens if he does establish a link? Perhaps he could have a home run like with BCR and say that this particular gene (if you have it) may lead to cancer and I think that is certainly a contribution to science and if I had that gene I would want to do something about it for sure. So it is certainly actionable. $100,000 could establish the linkage in that family and he would publish his results and people would talk about it. To take it to the next level would require significantly greater resources. He would need to then build a model, look for community members with the gene who are not part of the family and have also had the disease,etc. You certainly wouldn't want to make a recommendation for society that only applies to one family. So while