ArticleMedComm2022
The value of broad taxonomic comparisons in evolutionary medicine: Disease is not a trait but a
Article in MedComm, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
6 citing papers in PubMed.
- Reframing the significance of menstruation: evolutionary insights from an organismal-relational perspective.History and philosophy of the life sciences · 2025Article
- Evolutionarily new genes in humans with disease phenotypes reveal functional enrichment patterns shaped by adaptive innovation and sexual selection.Genome research · 2025Article
- Evolutionarily new genes in humans with disease phenotypes reveal functional enrichment patterns shaped by adaptive innovation and sexual selection.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2024Article
- Review
- Evolutionarily new genes in humans with disease phenotypes reveal functional enrichment patterns shaped by adaptive innovation and sexual selection.Research square · 2023Article
- The value of broad taxonomic comparisons in evolutionary medicine: Disease is not a trait but aMedComm · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
Abstract
In this short paper, we argue that there is a fundamental connection between the medical sciences and evolutionary biology as both are sciences of biological variation. Medicine studies pathological variation among humans (and domestic animals in veterinary medicine) and evolutionary biology studies variation within and among species in general. A key principle of evolutionary biology is that genetic differences among species have arisen first from mutations originating within populations. This implies a mechanistic continuity between variation among individuals within a species and variation between species. This fact motivates research that seeks to leverage comparisons among species to unravel the genetic basis of human disease vulnerabilities. This view also implies that genetically caused diseases can be understood as extreme states of an underlying trait, that is, an axis of variation, rather than distinct traits, as often assumed in GWAS studies. We illustrate these points with a number of examples as diverse as anatomical birth defects, cranio-facial variation, preeclampsia and vulnerability to metastatic cancer.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.