Why study selfish genes?
In cell biology, the many components of cells seem to work in concert to help the cell survive. But that’s not necessarily how it happens. To me, it was really eye-opening to realize that collaboration might be the exception rather than the rule — that a cell is not surviving because of the collaboration, but in spite of it. That seemed a radical concept worthy of study. What work did the ‘creative promise’ award recognize? My colleague Mike Emerman, a molecular virologist at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, found that we had a mutual interest in host–virus interactions. We decided to study ‘fossilized’ viruses — viral remnants in our genomes. In a fresh approach, we looked for genetic evidence of the evolutionary pressures that these viruses had placed on host genes as a way of inferring what palaeoviruses were capable of. We gained insight into how these genes, which are so important in present-day infections, became battle-hardened by repeated conflicts. We published a se
