Genomics and self-knowledge: implications for societal research and debate

Abstract

When the Human Genome Project (HGP) was launched, our genome was presented as our ‘blueprint’, a metaphor reflecting a genetic deterministic epistemology. Eventually, however, the HGP undermined rather than strengthened the understanding of genomes as blueprints and of genes as ultimate causal units. A symbolical turning point was the discovery that the human genome only contains～22,500 genes. Initially, this was seen as a narcissistic offence. Gradually, however, it strengthened the shift from traditional genetics and biotechnology (i.e., gene-oriented approaches) to genomics, i.e. genome-oriented or systems approaches, emphasizing complexity. The 20th century can be regarded as the century of biotechnology and of the gene. Its history demonstrated that the will to know (notably: to know ourselves) has never been a disinterested affair: it is driven by a will to improve (notably: to improve ourselves). In this article it is claimed that, as genomics takes us beyond a genetic deterministic understanding of life, this must have consequences for societal research and debate as well. Policies for self-improvement will increasingly rely on the use of complex interpretation. Therefore, the emphasis must shift from issues such as genetic manipulation and human enhancement to issues involved in governance of novel forms of information.     

Exploring the post-genomic world: differing explanatory and manipulatory functions of post-genomic sciences

Richard Lewontin proposed that the ability of a scientific field to create a narrative for public understanding garners it social relevance. This article applies Lewontin's conceptual framework of the functions of science (manipulatory and explanatory) to compare and explain the current differences in perceived societal relevance of genetics/genomics and proteomics. We provide three examples to illustrate the social relevance and strong cultural narrative of genetics/genomics for which no counterpart exists for proteomics. We argue that the major difference between genetics/genomics and proteomics is that genomics has a strong explanatory function, due to the strong cultural narrative of heredity. Based on qualitative interviews and observations of proteomics conferences, we suggest that the nature of proteins, lack of public understanding, and theoretical complexity exacerbates this difference for proteomics. Lewontin's framework suggests that social scientists may find that omics sciences affect social relations in different ways than past analyses of genetics.     

Technoscientific bespoking: Animals,publics and the new genetics

This paper examines the public understanding of science, especially biotechnology and the new genetics, in light of the symbolic roles of animals in the constitution of cultural identities. As such, the paper expands on the critical approach to public understanding of science, with its emphasis upon the way local identities impact upon the apprehension of, and trust in, science and scientific institutions. In particular, the new genetics raises issues about what sorts of broader public identities are mobilized. It is argued that, on the one hand, the complex symbolic role of animals is linked to a wide and contradictory range of modern Western identities, and thus potentially to volatility in the public's response to such biotechnological innovation. On the other, technoscientific bespoking, by rendering animals 'ready-to-order', might catastrophically curtail the symbolic role of animals in human identities, and thus provoke a general anxiety toward new genetics. Some political and research implications of the analysis are briefly explored.     

Biotechnology,people and markets

In assessing the likely demand for biotechnology products it is not sufficient just to look at what is happening in firms and their immediate market environment. There is no one 'market' for biotechnology products: there are differences between sectors and between countries. You have instead to look at the institutional contexts of the biotechnology product's development. This paper reviews work which has been carried out by social scientists, especially those using 'social shaping' approaches, on the development of new products based on advances in biotechnology and on the creation of markets to go with these products. It examines work on public attitudes to the exploitation of the technology, focusing especially on the issue of social inclusion and exclusion and how biotechnology might make exclusion more likely. It concludes by considering what current differences in public attitudes to the development of some biotechnology-based products might mean for the development of markets for those products in the UK.     

The Human Genome Project: an examination of its challenge to the technological imperative

Increasingly scientists and governmental policymakers find themselves leaving their laboratories and office cubicles to share information and decision making with the general public. Contributing in large part to the development of science communication via the mass media has been the Human Genome Project (HGP). Examining the development of the HGP in the United States beginning with the early 1970s helps to establish why and how the general public has become a major player in science policy in the United States during the past quarter century, especially in regard to the ethical, legal, and social implications of research on human genetics. Calling into question the technological imperative--the idea that all things scientific must be pursued without question--the general public came to realize that exerting control over research funding is the key to participating in the scientific process.     

Genomics research in the UK—the social science agenda

Abstract

We sketch the development of UK genetics and genomics research, and emphasize the UK's key role in the international genetics and genomics research community. We highlight in particular the part played by the UK's Research Councils and other funders. With the move from genomics to post-genomics research, the field is diversifying, and interdisciplinarity becomes increasingly important, as traditional disciplinary boundaries become blurred, or break down, in the face of newly emerging sciences. We consider the changing nature of health and ill health in the developed and developing world, and questions about the complex nature of the relationships between genes and the environment, and their future implications for human health and human populations. We describe the ESRC's activities, stressing the importance of both the social, ethical and legal issues raised by these emerging disciplines, and of public engagement. Finally, we link the data handling and analysis issues raised by these emerging sciences, with other new research areas, in particular the UK's e-Science programme.     

人类基因组计划与后基因组时代

2003年4月14日生命科学诞生了一个新的重要里程碑,人类基因组计划完成,后基因组时代正式来临。着重介绍了人类基因组计划的提出、目标与任务、实施与进展等方面的基本情况,讨论了后基因组时代的时间界定,分析展望了后基因组时代与人类基因组计划密切相关的生物信息学、功能基因组学、蛋白质组学、药物基因组学等几个重要研究领域 。     

Mediated speculations in the genomics futures markets

This article examines the interactions between the media and genomics, with particular reference to the case of deCODE Genetics in Iceland. It focuses on the role of "forward-looking statements" and other forms of speculation as they operate in the science of genomics, in the social relations that happen around genomics, and in the commercial genomics economy. The article discusses how these fundamentally anticipatory speech acts uttered or written by genomic corporate executives, journalists, or social scientists are simultaneously volatile, exceeding any formal practices of accounting or analysis, and demanding to be accounted for, analysed, or valued. The article discusses four speculative events or cases in the genomics economy: the March 2000 bursting out of the genomics bubble, prompted in part by remarks by President Clinton and Prime Minister Blair to the media concerning gene patenting; the new disclosure requirements of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) regarding "forward-looking statements" as they appear in genomics press releases; deCODE Genetics' registration statement with the SEC that discloses a settlement of a dispute over the ownership of a fragment of DNA; and the entanglement between the author's ethnographic fieldwork and the breaking news story of reported payoffs from deCODE to the Icelandic political parties.     

The Lego® analogy model for teaching gene sequencing and biotechnology

Research in biotechnology is rapidly advancing; everyday, new and exciting discoveries are made. With this new technology there are also many safety and ethical questions, though, as well as the need for education. Alternative teaching methods may help to increase students' understanding of difficult concepts in all aspects of schooling, including mathematics, science, genetics, and biotechnology. The Genomic Analogy Model for Educators (GAME) is a teaching tool currently under development, made up of three different pieces: (i) a CD-Rom, (ii) a website and (iii) laboratory exercises. The GAME model uses simple analogies of easily understandable concepts to explain the technical and scientific aspects of modern genomics; the first module is the Lego® Analogy Model (LAM) which focuses on DNA sequencing using the Sanger method and electrophoresis. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the GAME model on high school students. In addition, the short term effect of the GAME model on high school students' attitudes about biotechnology was also measured. Results showed a positive change in students' post-test scores after participating in GAME which indicates the effectiveness of this new tool for biotechnology education.     

Genes,agents and the institution of responsible action

The concern of this paper is with how the accounts of human beings and their behaviour now emerging from genetics, genomics and the new human biotechnology should be related to traditional accounts in which we identify ourselves as responsible agents, capable of choice, who normally act freely and voluntarily. The paper addresses these apparently competing accounts in terms of their functions and modes of use, and thereby arrives at a general solution to this current version of the ancient problem of free will and determinism. The causal scientific discourse of genetics and the everyday discourse of responsibility and choice do different things for us, it suggests, and should not be regarded as articulating conflicting theories. Whilst the former is oriented to the task of naturalistic explanation, the latter is predominantly, if not entirely, a medium of communication through which we affect each other and thereby mutually regulate our conduct. If this is indeed the case, then interesting implications follow concerning the proper relationship of the two kinds of account, which need no longer be regarded as incompatible with each other. And insights emerge into both the limitations and the profound importance of the contribution that genetics and genomics seem destined to make to the understanding of human behaviour.     

Obituary: Dorothy Nelkin (30 July 1933–28 May 2003)

Biotechnologies are expected to have profound impacts across industrial and industrializing economies. One of the critical shaping influences on the development and use of these technologies will be the multiple social contests that have developed over their sustainability. For new technologies to become embedded in social, economic and institutional systems, processes of mutual adjustment must take place in both the technology and its social contexts. These adjustment processes tend to be complex and unpredictable, and their scale and scope reflect the anticipated significance of a new technology. I review the range of debates and contests about the impacts of biotechnology on environmental and social sustainability that will influence its development and diffusion. These contests are viewed as contingent, in that they are often framed by already established concerns and interests. In this sense, debates about biotechnology are primarily 'additive', rather than wholly novel.     

中国基因组学研究进展与发展态势

20 世纪 90 年代初,以完成人类基因组全序列测定和注释为核心任务的人类基因组计划在美国的领导下兴起．自1999年中国加入人类基因组计划到现在的10年时间里,中国基因组学得到了快速的发展,建立了先进的基因组学技术平台,并出色完成了多项重大基因组科学研究项目,对我国生命科学各个领域的发展产生了重要影响．结合我国基因组学研究现状,《中国科学C辑·生命科学》(Sci China Ser C-Life Sci) 2009年第1期发表了中国基因组学专题,综述了基因组测序、分型,功能基因检测技术和生物信息学分析技术,以及肝癌、免疫和环境与工业微生物的基因组学研究等方面的研究工作．     

Investment in plant research and development bears fruit in China

Recent rapid progress in plant science and biotechnology in China demonstrates that China’s stronger support for funding in plant research and development (R&D) has borne fruit. Chinese groups have contributed major advances in a range of fields, such as rice biology, plant hormone and developmental biology, genomics and evolution, plant genetics and epigenetics, as well as plant biotechnology. Strigolactone studies including those identifying its receptor and dissecting its complex structure and signaling are representative of the recent researches from China at the forefront of the field. These advances are attributable in large part to interdisciplinary studies among scientists from plant science, chemistry, bioinformatics, structural biology, and agronomy. The platforms provided by national facilities facilitate this collaboration. As well, efficient restructuring of the top–down organization of state programs and free exploration of scientists’ interests have accelerated achievements by Chinese researchers. Here, we provide a general outline of China’s progress in plant R&D to highlight fields in which Chinese research has made significant contributions.     

Constructivism,sociology and the new genetics 1

In this paper it is argued that the social sciences, especially sociology, cannot afford to ignore the challenge that is coming from the new genetics. This will involve rethinking some of the epistemological assumptions of modernist social science, which has always assumed the separation of nature and society. The argument made in this article is that a qualified version of constructivism points to a possible opening within the sciences for a reorientation for sociology and in a way that the new genetics can be addressed in a serious way.     

Influence of cultural and disciplinary identity on the way teachers in agricultural education in France relate to knowledge in biotechnology

Socio-professional identity of teachers may have an impact on their way of teaching biotechnology. Livestock and crop production teachers have been trained according to the intensive agriculture model. They have been affected by the emergence of limits to this model; an identity crisis has appeared due to the gap between their disciplinary culture and new social demands. Biotechnology applications have various repercussions in different disciplinary fields, whether in the humanities or in science an technology. To identify the influence of the prevailing culture in various disciplines, a comparative study of opinions (arguments, emotions, behavioural intentions) on various biotechnology applications held among teachers of different disciplinary options has been made in agricultural education in France. In the fields of ethics, human health and the environment, the opinions among teachers in the humanities (economics, modern languages and history/geography) differed significantly from opinions among teachers with scientific and/or technical training (in biology and livestock and crop production). The former expressed more disquiet than the latter. Biology teachers felt less concern about the development of biotechnology applications.     

比较遗传学介绍

随着遗传作图的不断发展,人们开始比较不同物种的基因组,并且揭示了一种从未被发现的基因组水平上基因排列顺序的保守性。随之,发展出比较遗传学概念：研究基因的排列顺序和基因数量的学科。比较遗传学已经被应用于植物基因组的基因定位,并预示出进化研究的一个全新领域。目前,比较遗传学和狭义的比较基因组学相互渗透和融合,形成一门新的学科,它将大大加深人们对基因组的理解。 Abstract：With the advance of genetic mapping and comparin g of different genomes,an undiscovered type of conservation was revealed: the co nservation of gene content and gene orders on the genome level. And it lodged th e concept of comparative genetics:the science that studies gene content and gene orders. Now comparative genetics has been used to facilitate the isolation of g ene, and it indicates a new field of evolution. This review discuses the develop ment of comparative genetics.In the future, comparative genetics and comparative genomics would be probably syncretize to be a new science, and it will deepen t he understanding of genomes.?     

Whose DNA? Genetic surveillance,ownership of information and newborn screening

Abstract

The new genetics, emerging as a scientific revolution, is reinforcing the biological theories which accounts for differences between groups and individuals. Genetic screening of populations contributes to the defining of normality within the dominant medical paradigm. The Newborn Screening Test for inborn errors of metabolism (the Guthrie test) is performed on all Australian babies in the first week of life. The test cards, which have been stored in Australia since the 1970s, have, since the development of new genetic technologies, become a potential DNA databank. These and the private DNA databanks for newborns that may arise in the foreseeable future encompass several of the new questions of genetics: who should have access to the information? Can the information be used for reasons other than those for which it was collected? Who should decide what happens to the information?

The social shaping of genetics as a biotechnology shows some of the ways in which genetics can be used as a means of social control. Examination of the ownership of information about both individuals and populations reveals some of the values and interests involved.     

In search of the Holy Grail: Media discourse and the new human genetics

It has widely been recognized that the media play a key role in framing debates about genetic issues. This paper provides an overview of the major areas of debate within the social scientific literature on media, public understanding of science and human genetics. It evaluates current approaches to assessing the role of the media in influencing public policy debates. It argues that an analysis of the strategies of news sources should occupy a central role in furthering understanding about the ways in which various social actors seek to influence public policy agendas. At present, within the field of human genetics, only a handful of researchers have systematically examined the strategies of news sources from the perspective of the sources themselves. While recent research has focused upon identifying the major sources and how they are used in science reporting, there remains much to be done in uncovering the processes of negotiation and contestation among social actors prior to issues gaining media coverage.