ON THE USE OF MOLECULAR-BIOLOGY DATA OCCUPATIONAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL EPIDEMIOLOGY

Major advances in molecular biology during recent years have helped to identify genes and enzymes that play an important role in many diseas es. While not ruling out traditional forms of epidemiology, the applic ation of epidemiologic study designs in molecular biological studies m ay provide possibilities of disclosing disease mechanisms at the gene level and identifying more specific indicators of disease. Data on add ucts to DNA or protein usually lead to cross sectional studies or coho rts. Genetically determined susceptibility or mutations in tumor cells might be available and possibly reflect etiologically important deter minants. The case-control design is applicable and cost-effective for the analysis of such data.