Introducing Cancer Genomes
A new channel coming to Holodoxa to be led by a series on hereditary cancer.
When I started this Substack channel, Holodoxa, I viewed it as an opportunity to do some science communication that would sit alongside the other types of writing I wanted to do: book reviews, literary criticism, and social commentary. After roughly two years of regular posts, I’ve begun to feel that I’ve neglected to do enough science writing. In order to remedy this, I am launching a new channel called Cancer Genomes (I will update this post with relevant links as they appear so feel free to bookmark this one).
Cancer Genomes: Cancer Syndromes, Precision Oncology, and More
Cancer Genomes will cover a range of topics in cancer and genomics, focusing on their nexus. To anchor the channel, I will start with a series on hereditary cancer syndromes, kicking off with PTEN Hamartoma Tumor Syndrome (PHTS). PHTS was the primary disease that the lab I did my PhD research in followed. Much of my own published work is concerned with PHTS. Because of this, I may put together several PHTS pieces before moving on to other cancer syndromes.
After completing the hereditary cancer series, I will branch out in cancer genomics. There won’t be a tight theme uniting the pieces after that. However, I will probably explore precision oncology topics closely as this is my professional interest.
A Note on Accessibility
I understand that some readers will not be as interested in biomedical science, especially as a lot of writing has focused on literature, history, and various social and behavioral science topics. But don’t fret, I will continue to turn out book reviews and commentaries on these subjects.
I understand that an additional concern will be about the complexity of the subject matter. How much will you need to know in order to understand the posts? Well, I will strive to make each post accessible to anyone with a high school level understanding of biology while still pushing up to the frontiers of knowledge in a given topic.
In order to facilitate this, I will try to structure posts so that there are helpful markers that indicate which content is meant for a more general audience and which content may be challenging. As a writer, I think I have a long way to go in terms of knowing what my readers do and don’t understand about a given topics. Because of this, I encourage any and everyone who takes the time to peruse my Cancer Genomes articles to provide feedback about the clarity of the content.