I agree that this paper is a run-of-the-mill systems biology paper. "Give me some genes, and I'll give you a network of genes that are associated via (insert functional method here)." Everyone does this. Unlike other methods that look at more than just expression... well, this just looks at expression.
A key question here is how many other pathways did they try this on before they got it to "work" on 10/14 (though really 10/60) B-cell-associated genes? I'm not asserting that they mined for the most favorable pathway, but I will say that this one example comes across as more of an anecdote than a proof of concept.
People are going to be using this tool perhaps hundreds of thousands of times. Don't show me one example where 10/14 genes "validated." Show me 20 examples where X out of N genes validate - if that's sufficiently high, I'll be much more interested.
Even the developmental focus of this new tool is fairly common practice by those in the field. Look at the Seidman lab or the Walsh lab at Boston Children's to see examples of other people thinking deeply about how developmental biology ties back into adult pathology.
A key question here is how many other pathways did they try this on before they got it to "work" on 10/14 (though really 10/60) B-cell-associated genes? I'm not asserting that they mined for the most favorable pathway, but I will say that this one example comes across as more of an anecdote than a proof of concept.
People are going to be using this tool perhaps hundreds of thousands of times. Don't show me one example where 10/14 genes "validated." Show me 20 examples where X out of N genes validate - if that's sufficiently high, I'll be much more interested.
Even the developmental focus of this new tool is fairly common practice by those in the field. Look at the Seidman lab or the Walsh lab at Boston Children's to see examples of other people thinking deeply about how developmental biology ties back into adult pathology.