Database helps researchers connect exposures to health effects, compare diseases

Two new studies give researchers new strategies for connecting environmental exposures to human health effects. To determine whether a drug can be used to treat more than one disease, scientists look for overlaps between the set of genes that play a role in each disease: the more genes in common, the more likely the drug can be repurposed to treat both illnesses. The problem is that not all the genes involved in any one disease are always known, they say.