How Microsoft Excel Changed The Names Of Genes

Even scientists sometimes have IT problems. But this one actually made them change the names of genes.

Image by Andrew Martin from Pixabay

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The HUGO Gene Nomenclature Committee (HGNC) came up with a new directive that regulates the naming of genes. But, the reasons why changes need to be done may surprise you. It is being done because scientists had a problem writing down some of the names of the genes into Microsoft Excel.

Just in the past year, 27 human genes were renamed for this reason. Microsoft’s Excel interchanged them with dates and converted them. For example, the gene called Membrane Associated Righ-CH-Type Finger 1 or MARCH1 was converted into 1-Mar.

And this definitely wasn't the only case as several genes have shortcuts that look like months of the year. In a study back in 2016 researchers analyzed what is the rate at which these errors occur. They analyzed more than 3,500 research papers and found out that more than one-fifth of all of them had a problem when writing down genes in Microsoft Excel.

Since Microsoft’s Excel doesn’t allow users to switch off automatic formatting the only way to fix the errors was to manually change the type of data in the individual columns. But, if the file was opened by someone else on another computer the formatting would switch back to the wrong one.

Right now, you might be asking yourself – wouldn’t it be easier if Microsoft changed Excel? Well, Elspeth Bruford from HGNC thinks the problem is so specific Microsoft just won’t care.

Sources:

• https://genomebiology.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13059-016-1044-7
• https://www.theverge.com/2020/8/6/21355674/human-genes-rename-microsoft-excel-misreading-dates

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