Abstract
Molecular pathological epidemiology: the role of epidemiology in the omics-era.
Highlights
The ‘omics’-era is well and truly upon us
While the focus of their paper is on examples that elegantly illustrate the application of molecular pathological epidemiology to unravel methodological paradoxes, I believe this approach will have further-reaching implications in biomedical research, which are only briefly touched upon by Nishihara et al and which I will expand on below
I am convinced that molecular pathological epidemiology is a pivotal cornerstone for successful implementation of novel initiatives, such as ‘personalized medicine’ and its latest incarnation ‘precision medicine’
Summary
The ‘omics’-era is well and truly upon us. Driven by technological innovations, fields such as genetics, epigenetics, proteomics and imaging are advancing at tremendous pace and in addition to unraveling pathophysiological mechanisms of health and disease, reveal the increasingly complex biology that forms the basis of living systems. Nishihara et al [1] use molecular pathological epidemiology to elucidate biomedical paradoxes that hitherto were ascribed to methodological phenomena, such as selection bias, collider bias, unmeasured confounding and reverse causality. While the focus of their paper is on examples that elegantly illustrate the application of molecular pathological epidemiology to unravel methodological paradoxes, I believe this approach will have further-reaching implications in biomedical research, which are only briefly touched upon by Nishihara et al and which I will expand on below.
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