Protocols, Networks and Conventions: New Forms of Objectivity and New Biomedical Practices in the (Post)genomic Era

Time: 12:00 - 1:00 p.m.

Place: 6th Floor Conference Room, Chemical Heritage Foundation

Information: 215-873-8289 or bbl@chemheritage.org

Free and open to the public.

The evolution of Western medicine since World War II may be described as a realignment of biology and medicine that has in turn been accompanied by the emergence of a new type of objectivity—regulatory objectivity—based on the systematic recourse to the collective production of evidence. Collaborative forms of work, such as extended networks, expert groups, and consortia, increasingly frame the structure of biomedical activities. This collective turn is especially visible in two domains: genomics—where the production of knowledge relies not only on very large-scale collaborative projects, such as the Human Genome Project, but also on a motley collection of cooperative groups specializing in a given pathology or specific genes—and, more traditionally, clinical trials, in particular in the field of oncology, where new protocols and therapies emerge from large-scale, multicenter clinical trials performed by long-established cooperative groups, such as the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group in the United States and the European Organisation for Research and Treatment in Cancer. In this talk Cambrosio will focus on a new kind of large collaborative clinical trial that emerges at the intersection of these two domains. These kinds of clinical trials raise issues about the redefinition of national and international collaborative links between clinicians and researchers from different disciplines and between public research organizations and biotechnology start-ups.

Alberto Cambrosio has been a professor at McGill University’s Department of Social Studies of Medicine since 1990. His area of expertise lies at the crossroads of medical sociology and the sociology of science and technology. His work focuses on biomedical innovation (in particular, on the application of molecular biology and genomics to the diagnosis and the therapy of cancer) and on the social and historical dynamics of biomedical regulation, objectification, and standardization. His publications include Exquisite Specificity: The Monoclonal Antibody Revolution (Oxford University Press, 1995) and Biomedical Platforms: Realigning the Normal and the Pathological in Late-Twentieth-Century Medicine (MIT Press, 2003), both coauthored with Peter Keating. He was one of the guest editors of a recent special issue of Social Studies of Science on "Biomedical Conventions and Regulatory Objectivity" (October 2009). He has recently submitted a book manuscript (also in collaboration with Peter Keating) titled Cancer on Trial: The Rise of Oncology as a New Style of Practice.