A researcher has measured gene expression measurements for 1000 genes in 40 subjects, half of them cases and the other half controls.

• Describe and explain what would happen if the researcher would fit an ordinary logistic regression to these data, using case/control status as the response variable.
• Instead, the researcher chooses to fit a lasso regression, choosing the tuning parameter lambda by cross-validation. Out of 1000 genes, 37 get a non-zero regression coefficient in the lasso fit. In the ensuing publication, the researcher writes that the 963 genes with zero regression coefficients were found to be “irrelevant”. What is your opinion about this statement?