Barry Starr
Contributor
D. Barry Starr - Russ Morris
After working as a researcher for a number of years in the biotech industry, I landed a job with Stanford University working at The Tech Museum of Innovation ("The Tech). At The Tech, I helped design the current Genetics exhibit, Genetics: Technology With a Twist, and run their online exhibit, Understanding Genetics.
Part of my job is to answer people's genetics questions online at the "Ask a Geneticist" section of the Understanding Genetics website. It is here that I learned how much I enjoy writing about science and helping to make tough genetics concepts clearer.
I got my Ph.D. in molecular biology from the University of Oregon in 1993 and did my postdoctoral research at UCSF.
Latest Articles
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DNA Mutations Cause Cancer
People do not inherit cancer but instead inherit an increased risk of getting cancer.
Feb 8, 2008
- Barry Starr
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Having Two Different Colored Eyes
Heterochromia or two different colored eyes can happen in people because of lost or damaged melanocytes and/or genetic conditions like chimerism or mosaicism.
Dec 5, 2007
- Barry Starr
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Human Chimeras
Genetic tests can be wrong if one of the tested people is a human chimera.
Nov 6, 2007
- Barry Starr
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Eye Color Genetics
Recent work points to the OCA2 gene as the key gene in deciding between brown and other color eyes. The green eye gene has not yet been found.
Oct 17, 2007
- Barry Starr
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The Golden Gene and Fair Skin
By looking at the golden gene, scientists have found that Northern Europeans turned lighter-skinned some 30,000 years after they arrived in Europe.
Oct 10, 2007
- Barry Starr
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The Genetics of Human Skin Color
A genetic study in zebrafish helps to identify the gene responsible for Europeans' pale skin-the golden gene.
Oct 5, 2007
- Barry Starr
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Human Evolution and Hair Loss
Why did humans lose their hair over time? Human ancestors may have developed sexually before they developed physically and so ended up hairless.
Oct 2, 2007
- Barry Starr
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Pheremones Decide Mice Sexuality
A mouse genetic study in which the TRPC2 gene was eliminated turned males and females into dominant bisexuals.
Sep 27, 2007
- Barry Starr
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Gene Changes and Obesity
Recent studies are showing that chemicals like nicotine can change a fetus's DNA to predispose him or her to obesity as an adult through a process called epigenetics.
Sep 21, 2007
- Barry Starr
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Genetics of Red Hair & Redheads
Changes in the MC1R gene that lead to red hair will always be present at a low level in the collective DNA of humanity.
Sep 18, 2007
- Barry Starr
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