Connective tissues: making intergenerational publics in a regional placenta biobank

• In Event: Collating Publics In Collections Of Human Biological Material And Data 2

Abstract

In the early 1990s, pregnant women were recruited to a longitudinal study of child health in the south west of the UK. The study collected lifestyle data and biological materials from women during pregnancy and at birth, including whole placentas. The placenta biobank has been maintained for over 25 years and contains over 8,000 specimens. This paper considers how links between biological materials and bio-information are central to the generation of new forms of biovalue. Drawing on interviews with mothers enrolled in the study and with scientists and curators involved in the creation and maintenance of the placenta biobank, we consider how the placenta is valued as a ‘connective tissue’ that links mothers and children as a study population across generations. Despite the relatively few research studies that have made use of placentas in the biobank, the value of the placenta collection is expected to increase as materials and data from future generations are collected. We suggest that the placenta biobank constitutes a multi-generational public, recreating the original cohort of mothers and children. As a co-created tissue, the placenta is also viewed as a potent symbol of the research study’s aim to collect data and materials from the child’s first ‘environment,’ that of the mother.

Authors

• Maria Fannin, University of Bristol

• Julie Kent, University of the West of England