not-yet-known not-yet-known not-yet-known unknown Germ cell mutagenesis Exposure of germ cells via a medical device mutagen led me to deep investigations of the germ cell mutagenesis literature. It led to publications that I consider among my most substantive. One was a collaboration with Sankar(anarayanan) on why the atom bomb attacks did not lead to detectable levels of genetic diseases: There is a mismatch between effects of ionizing radiation and the molecular basis (and origin) of most observable genetic diseases. This is a critical realization possible only with knowledge of the DNA damaging effects of ionizing radiation (large scale damage, e.g. chromosomal breaks), coupled with understanding of sentinel diseases used to investigate human harm (the more common genetic diseases resulting from inherited mutations, plus rare single base pair alterations) (Elespuru and Sankar 2007). These sentinel diseases would also be the target of clinical trials related to the problematic medical device. It turned out that the most common birth defects (used as a determinant of harm in the device clinical trials) could not be a consequence of interaction with male germ cells (inherited diseases like Cystic fibrosis, female-based diseases like Downs Syndrome) and hence would not be informative about outcomes of male-based germ cell DNA interactions. However, I could not convince the team with my scientific arguments. Later I showed why currently used sentinels for heritable genetic disease (mostly inherited, female-based, and not caused by genetic damage, or requiring a very specific genetic alteration, like achondroplasia) were inadequate and suggested others that would be detectable and could arise from an environmental mutagen (Elespuru 2011).