The renaming of human genes to please Excel is sad, but hilarious, and a daily occurrence for people using software. Software like Excel makes it easier to work with lots of structured data. But in this particular case, it has had an impact on the data itself: Forcing data to bend to the will of software.
Help has arrived, though, in the form of the scientific body in charge of standardizing the names of genes, the HUGO Gene Nomenclature Committee, or HGNC. This week, the HGNC published new guidelines for gene naming, including for “symbols that affect data handling and retrieval.” From now on, they say, human genes and the proteins they expressed will be named with one eye on Excel’s auto-formatting. That means the symbol MARCH1 has now become MARCHF1, while SEPT1 has become SEPTIN1, and so on. A record of old symbols and names will be stored by HGNC to avoid confusion in the future. … But Bruford says this is the first time that the guidelines have been rewritten specifically to counter the problems caused by software. So far, the reactions seem to be extremely positive — some would even say joyous.
– Scientists rename human genes to stop Microsoft Excel from misreading them as dates | The Verge (Retrieved: [2026-06-10 Wed 12:24])