ESHS/HSS Annual Meeting

International Cooperation at the Time of the Human Genome Project (1987–1992)

• In Event: New Perspectives on Collaboration in Science 2

English Abstract

Human genetics and genomics underwent a radical transformation with the implementation of human DNA mapping and sequencing in 1989. This highly expensive and time-consuming project relied on government support through “genome plans” and indispensable international collaborations, bringing the discipline into the era of big science.
This study examines the project initiated in the United States in 1989, which had been conceived as international from its early development in 1987. Drawing on John Krige’s theses and applying them to genomics, it shows how the United States sought to dominate the international collaborations it was setting up. Using the U.S. National Archives in Washington, we demonstrate that these exchanges were asymmetrical and served national objectives of competitiveness.
The perspectives of the British and the French—who were both collaborators and competitors within public programs as well as private partnerships—will be explored using records from the UK and French national archives, along with private archives from the Wellcome Trust and the CEPH, major actors in the genomics enterprise.
We will show that the Human Genome Project was a moment of strengthening international networks within human genetics, particularly through the creation of a coordinating body, the Human Genome Organisation (HUGO), founded in 1989, which itself became an object of contestation and influence.
We will demonstrate that entering the realm of big science reshaped the nature of international collaboration in biomedicine. The growing role of government agencies integrated scientific disciplines into national political and financial systems, as argued by Dominique Pestre. Finally, new ethical challenges emerged with the issue of patents on living organisms, leading to a confrontation in 1991 between Europe and the United States. In 1992, the first genetic maps of the human genome marked the end of the project’s initial phase.

Author

• Raphaël Lavie, Sorbonne Université