Joining the likes of The Ghost Map (2006) by Steven Johnson and Molly Caldwell’s The American Plague, The Gene is a book in the medical history genre, exploring the story behind a major medical event or discovery. 

The medical history uses accessible and vivid language to unpack dense concepts for the general reader. The genre also borrows conventions from the thriller and suspense genre—such as a fast pace and tense situations—to emphasize the urgent nature of medical discoveries. As an example, in The Gene, Mukherjee narrates the race to sequence the human genome first as a ticking-clock situation between the Human Genome Project and Celera. 

The genre also draws on the stories of patients to humanize the subject matter by linking medical breakthroughs and treatments to individual experiences. For instance, Mukherjee’s own The Emperor of All Maladies attempts to create pathos through the sketches of people grappling with cancer treatment, creating a parallel narrative to Mukherjee’s exploration of the history and scientific nature of cancer. In The Gene, his family’s shame around mental health issues illustrates the devastating effect of stigmatizing certain conditions.

Medical history narratives also often humanize key figures involved in discoveries, such as doctors and scientists, by exploring their personal lives and motivations. Other narratives choose to build them up as vivid, sometimes heroic characters. For instance, in The Gene, Mukherjee paints a tender portrait of quiet, laborious Gregor Mendel, toiling away in his garden to make a discovery that would impact all of humanity. In The Ghost Map, a story of the discovery of the waterborne nature of cholera, Johnson brings to life the lesser-known characters of the tale, such as the curate Henry Whitehead, who helped famous physician Dr. John Snow connect the plague sweeping London to its water supply.