Phenotypic diversity exists even within isogenic populations of cells. Such nongenetic individuality may have wide implications for our understanding of many biological processes. The field of study concerned with the investigation of nongenetic individuality, also known as the 'biology of noise', is ripe with exciting scientific opportunities and challenges.
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Acknowledgements
We thank J. Steward-Ornstein for his comments on this commentary. This work was supported by the University of California, San Francisco Program for Breakthrough Biomedical Research and by a US National Institutes of Health grant (GM086379) to H.E.-S.
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McCullagh, E., Farlow, J., Fuller, C. et al. Not all quiet on the noise front. Nat Chem Biol 5, 699–704 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/nchembio.222
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nchembio.222
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