The colonic crypts (the fingerlike projections seen here at also the the home page) are where the cells in the colon are created. As the cells age, they move up the colonic crypts to make room for new cells. We have developed functional data methods to understand how the cell age, i.e., where the cells are in the colonic crpyts, affects such phenotypes as apoptosis (programmed cell depth), DNA adduct levels and the MGMT repair enzyme.