[Genetics and epidemiology: possibilities of a common program from the perspective of the history of biology].
The current convergence of molecular genetics and epidemiology on the analysis of chronic diseases have prompted the comparison of the roles of genetics and epidemiology with those maintained at the end of XIX century by the, then, emergent bacteriology and miasmatic theories of infectious diseases. In some cases, the analogy have been extended to the causal role of germ and mutation on infectious and chronic diseases respectively. An historical analysis of the construction of the theory of the gene in the early years of our century, reveals that this conception was one of the difficulties that the new science of genetics had to overcome to elaborate the current theory of heredity which, therefore, seems incompatible with such concepts. It points also to the historical concepts that, although already obsolete, are still reflected in a deterministic view of the gene and, on the other hand, cast some optimism about the possibility of constructing a common program for genetic and epidemiology.
Moya
F
F
Universidad Miguel Hernández, Instituto de Neurociencias, San Juan de Alicante.
D001695:Biology / Q000266:history*; D004813:Epidemiology; D005796:Genes; D005823:Genetics; D049671:History, 18th Century; D049672:History, 19th Century; D009154:Mutation