Innovation, Biocapital and the Making of Post-Genomic Medicine - I

Abstract

The pursuit of innovation is increasingly seen as a central goal of healthcare systems as governments and industry seek to create value from tissues, bodies and personal medical information. The development of genomic and post-genomic technoscience in this context is closely entangled with new political economies and forms of biocapital. Associated healthcare futures are dominated by imaginaries in which the development of potentially disruptive technologies, such as gene editing, whole genome sequencing and gene therapy, will drive a ‘revolution’ in biomedicine. How can STS scholars understand and analyse these new discourses of innovation, emerging political economies and novel forms of value creation? How might we link the development of post-genomic technologies and biomedicine to the emergence of personalised medicine and the entrepreneurial and post-austerity state? This panel seeks to bring together papers on the broader shaping of contemporary biomedicine with work on specific new medical technologies, including studies of pharmaceutical and biotechnological innovation. This might include research on public policy, firms and industry networks, clinical practices, and governance regimes. Contributions from non-Western countries and the Global South would be particularly welcome. The panel speaks directly to the conference theme of ‘innovation’ and would stimulate STS scholarship located at the interface of political economy, innovation studies and ethnographies of biomedicine.

Individual Presentations

• From "Janampatri" to "Genomepatri": The (Re)Emergence of Personalized Medicine in India - Shashank Shekhar Tiwari, Canadian Institute for Genomics and Society

• Promising Precision Medicine for the Population: Case Studies in Bringing Genomic Technologies Into Healthcare - Kasia Tolwinski, McGill University

• Terms and Conditions: Data, Consent, and the Unintended Consequences of Direct-to-Consumer DNA Tests - Hazelle Lerum, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute; Hined A Rafeh, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

• Variants of Uncertain Significance and Communities of Practice in Clinical Genomics - Adam Hedgecoe, Cardiff University

• Promissory Policy and the Making of Platform Biocapitalism: Towards a Political Economy of UK Genomics - Paul Martin, Department of Sociological Studies, University of Sheffield

Session Organizer

• Paul Martin, Department of Sociological Studies, University of Sheffield