Many older people silently harbor a blood “pre-cancer”—a gene mutation acquired during their lifetime that could start them on the path to leukemia, lymphoma or other blood disease, scientists have discovered. The discovery was made by two international research teams working independently, decoding the DNA of about 30,000 people. Steven McCarroll, assistant professor of genetics, is senior author of one of the papers. Benjamin Ebert, associate professor of medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, is senior author of the other paper.
