Sonic hedgehog and Beethoven: an oral history of how some genes got their names

Scientists are systematic and meticulous when it comes to naming genes.

They use computer programs to identify new ones and follow standardized guidelines to give them names like TP53, APOE, BRCA1.

That, however, has not always been the case. During the late 1970s to 1990s, the heyday for newly identified genes, scientists selected names based on emotion and free association. The results were public displays of scientific wit, whimsy, and irreverence.

STAT interviewed a handful of researchers about that Wild-West era and how they came up with some of the more memorable gene names.

Here’s what they had to say in their own words — though with responses condensed and lightly edited for clarity.

Ken and Barbie (1993)

Steven A. Wasserman, professor of biology at the University of California, San Diego

In 1993, after