David Friedberg

And you can see which genes are on and off by looking at the RNA of those genes, which tells you that those genes are expressing RNA to make protein or not make protein.

And you can look at that gene expression to determine what is changing when a cell is exposed to a particular environmental trigger

And so they were able to get these samples of colon adenocarcinomas from the Cancer Genome Atlas, which is funded by the federal government.

And they were then able to take a look at these cancer cells from colon cancer in patients that are under 50 and patients that are over 70, and look at the difference in the gene expression profile

and what environmental triggers are associated with that gene expression profile.

So that will tell you, hey, these environmental triggers are more likely the cause or an underlying driver of the risk of getting this colon cancer.

And one thing rose to the top.

So they looked at a whole bunch of things, they look at lifestyle factors, they look at

Eating index, how much you ate, how overweight you were, alcohol, birth weight.

They adjusted for gender.

They adjusted for all these different things.

And as you look down this list, you'll see this is the difference between people that got colon cancer that were over 70, when you typically have a very high chance of getting it, and people that are under 50 when you don't.

And what is going on with people under 50?

And you can see there's this one row here that's all orange.

That row is a pesticide called piclorum.

Piclorum is a pesticide that was developed by the Dow Chemical Company in 1963.

This is the chemical formula for that pesticide.

It's related to auxin, which are these hormones that plants make.

And in the 1960s, there was this big rush to try and make synthetic plant hormones that you would then apply to a plant.

It would cause the plant to overgrow and the plant would quickly die.