7/4/25

A Reminder for the 4th of July

 The colonists were divided between Loyalists and Patriots. The Continental Congress could not agree on squat. Many Patriot soldiers were young, inexperienced, and ill-equipped. But they kept fighting. How do I know? One of my ancestors was an officer in the Continental Army. My maternal 4th great-grandfather was a captain. Other distant genetic relatives signed the Declaration of Independence. And I’m sure my Native American ancestors were probably saying, “WTF! You’re fighting over our land!” And they were likely unwilling participants as well. Learn history Just a reminder: The war for independence was long, hard, and a total shitshow. (including your family’s). It might surprise you.


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Coming Soon - A Story to Help Prevent Hereditary Cancer

 Coming Soon: Genetic Inheritance -- A Story to Help Prevent Hereditary Cancer

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7/2/25

Peas Mixed with Chromosomes?

Something that I find sad and frustrating as a hereditary cancer advocate is just how little people know about genetics. It's really hard to have a serious discussion about inherited genetic mutations and hereditary cancer awareness and prevention when people have no clue what genes really are and what they actually do.

So I created this free* resource to introduce kids to genomic science. (And with the hope that many adults will find it educational as well.) 

It can be downloaded at www.genetionary.org/DNA

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6/11/25

Celebrating Previvor Day on Father's Day Again

 Photo of a previvor shirt along with a photo of the artist and author with his baby daughter.

When my daughter was born in 1993, the announcement about the discovery of the tumor suppressor gene BRCA2 was a couple years away. And the coining of the word “previvor” was still several years off. Both of those future events would turn out to be profoundly significant.

In 2017, my daughter had genetic testing and learned she had inherited a mutation in one of her BRCA2 genes. A mutation that we now know to have been passed down in her mother’s family for centuries. That’s right, centuries. Knowledge of the mutation has allowed my daughter to take steps to significantly reduce her cancer risk. She is a previvor.

As part of our effort to raise hereditary cancer prevention awareness, I set out to design a previvor shirt for my daughter. But I soon realized that there wasn’t really a symbol for previvorship. So I sat down at my drawing table and sketched out about a dozen designs before settling on this one. I wanted the symbol to be unique and open for personal interpretation. But with no cancer ribbon in the design.

This coming Father’s Day, I will be celebrating my daughter’s previvorship and courage. And I will also be celebrating the science that has given my child a chance to live a full life cancer-free. A life her late mother did not get.

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6/7/25

Hereditary Cancer Red Flags Checklist

 Hereditary Cancer Red Flags -Breast, colorectal, or uterine cancers under the age of 50. -Triple-negative breast cancer. (Breast cancer with no estrogen, progesterone, or HER2 receptors on the tumor.) -Male breast cancer diagnosed at any age. -Two separate cancer diagnoses in the same family member. Example: Both pancreatic and breast cancers in one individual. -Ovarian cancer at any age, especially in younger women. -A known BRCA, Lynch syndrome, or other pathogenic hereditary cancer-related mutation in the family. And that can be in a close genetic relative or one separated by many degrees. -Being of Ashkenazi Jewish descent with a history of cancer at any age. -Multiple family members with the same type of cancer or related cancers (like breast, ovarian, pancreatic, or prostate). -Pancreatic cancer at any age. -Metastatic prostate cancer. For more hereditary cancer resources go to www.genetionary.org Please note: If you checked any of the boxes, please consult with your doctor and/or a certified genetic counselor. Be sure to take this checklist with you.

With at least 1 in 279 people at risk of hereditary cancer, this checklist should be a standard in every healthcare professional’s office. Download a PDF of it as well as other useful infographics about hereditary cancer at www.genetionary.org

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5/14/25

Germline Mutations: Illustrating the Cycle of Hereditary Cancer in Families

GERMLINE MUTATIONS INFOGRAPHIC Illustrating the Cycle of Hereditary Cancer in Families Found in every cell in your body, your genes control how your body looks, grows, and functions. You have two copies of every gene. You inherited one copy of every gene you have from your mother and another copy from your father. Among the thousands of genes that you inherited are genes that help prevent tumors and cancers from forming. These are called tumor suppressor genes. Germline mutations are genetic changes that are present in genes in sperm or eggs (germ cells) at the time of conception. Some germline mutations in tumor suppressor genes can increase the risk for developing hereditary cancer. Genetic testing looks for changes in tumor suppression genes that have been linked to hereditary cancer. These particular inherited genetic changes are called pathogenic germline mutations. It is estimated that 1 in 279 people carry pathogenic germline mutations that may increase their risk of cancer. Knowledge is power. Learning if you have an increased risk of cancer because of an inherited genetic mutation can help you take steps to detect cancer at an earlier, more treatable stage or prevent some cancers from ever developing. 

After my late wife was diagnosed with hereditary cancer, I quickly learned that trying to explain germline mutations and genetic inheritance to anyone who cared enough to ask questions was not an easy task. Especially since it seemed like a lot of people lacked a basic understanding of biology.
Now that I’m a hereditary cancer awareness and prevention advocate, I try to use my extensive illustration and editorial experience to create infographics that introduce and explain genetic mutations and hereditary cancer on a basic level. I hope it makes it a little easier to understand a very complex subject. And I hope it encourages more genetic counseling and testing and helps save some lives as well.

This graphic can be downloaded at: www.genetionary.org/resources. Please pass it along.

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5/5/25

On Cinco de Mayo

Image of various signs and sheet of rub-on lettering. “Pssst… if you ever see this typeface on anything, or if it’s on your computer system, its real name is La Fiesta. I know because I created it in the late ‘80s. It was a winner in a Chartpak International Typeface Competition. The design was hand-rendered and first produced as rub-on lettering by Chartpak. But when personal computing started taking off, it was pilfered by a fly-by-night software company and renamed.”

Since it's Cinco de Mayo, I thought I'd share this.

Sometimes interesting and sometimes frustrating, a lot of my work has taken on a life of its own over the years. It’s really not unusual to see something I created over the course of my long career being used on the internet or when I travel about. (Sometimes authorized, sometimes not.)
(Ask me about some of my Discovery (Channel) Education Clip Art Gallery images someday.)


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