Scientists Rename Human Genes Because Excel Keeps Mistaking Them For Dates

Human has tens of thousands of genes, a twist of RNA and DNA that store generic information and all of our unique traits.

To help with scientist collaboration, each gene is given a symbol, making up of alphanumeric code and a name. However, in the past few years, scientists have renamed over 27 genes because Microsoft Excel keeps mistaking them for dates.

As Excel is still the king in the spreadsheet world, scientists across different fields have been using it to conduct clinical trials and track their work.

However, the problem here is, Excel’s default settings were made with more mundane tasks in mind. This is why when names like MARCH1 (stand for Membrane Associated Ring-CH-Type Finger 1) is type in, Excel automatically converts the name to Mar-1.

This auto-correction is troublesome, and sometimes dangerous, as it can corrupt the data scientists have collected and in a lot of situations, the only way to correct the mistakes is to comb through the whole record manually and fix them by hand.

A study made public in 2016 that looked into generic data of 3,597 scientific papers pointed out that around one-fifth of them have been corrupted by Excel’s auto-correction.

According to Dezső Módos, a Quadram Institute’s systems biologist, these errors are really frustrating and they occur often as Excel is the most common tool to process numerical data.

As Excel doesn’t exactly let users turn off the auto-formatting feature, the only way to maintain the correctness of genes’ names is to manually change each column’s data type.

And when there is no easy fix with Excel, scientists have found a solution on their end. The HUGO Gene Nomenclature Committee, or HGNC for short, decided to lay out a new guideline for naming genes. So from now on, human protein and genes will be named so that Excel cannot mistake them for dates anymore. For example, MARCH1 is now called MARCHF1 and SEPT1 has been renamed SEPTIN1.

To avoid confusion, HGNC keeps a record of the old naming system after the change has taken place.

According to Elspeth Bruford, an HGNC’s coordinator, in the early days, naming genes was scientists’ playground, leading to names like Indy (short for ‘I’m not dead yet’) and “sonic hedgehog.”

However, HGNC’s standards leave no chance for creativity by focusing on the practical applications of the names. Whenever scientists give genes symbols, they have to make sure that the names are unique, specific, and brief. Only Arabic numerals and Latin letters are allowed to be used.

While the decision is huge, it’s uncommon. In the past, names of genes that can be read as nouns have been changed to avoid potential insult. For example, CARS is now called CARS1, MARS is MARS1, and WARS has been tweaked to WARS1.

Explaining the decision to change genes’ names, Bruford said they had always imagined a situation where a doctor must explain to a child’ parents of a mutation in a gene. The gene HECA used to be called headcase homolog after its counterpart found in the fruit fly. However, scientists decided to discard the old name to avoid offenses.

However, this is the first time HGNC rewrite their guidelines to fit a software. And yet, initial reactions are mostly positive.

There are some opposition arises but it mostly focuses on one matter: why the scientists, not Microsoft, have to change the way they work?

Microsoft has not yet commented anything on this matter but Bruford has his own theory. She said the company saw no obligation to change as this was a rather limited use case for its tool. So why change something the majority of its users except and have no problem with to suit a small number of genetic scientists?

Even though Microsoft shows no support effort in this matter, Bruford doesn’t seem to be offended. She shared that it was better giving genes names that work rather than waiting for a fix from Microsoft that might never come.

>>> New Method Allows Scientists To Edit Genes From Inside Patient Body