![]() | Melanie Jeske - University of Chicago |
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01.03.2022-28.04.2022
Humans and Organs on Chips: Modeling the Body in the Age of Translation
The overall objective of this application is to investigate the social and political dimensions of an emerging high-tech technology, and in so doing, contribute to STS studies of animal model use in biomedical research, the construction of human difference, and the political economy of university-industry research. The rationale for this dissertation is that it responds to two gaps in the literature: it investigates a technology that serves as a basic tool of research, rather than an end product, and it examines the construction of a technology while it is still under development. The proposed research has three specific aims: (1) investigate the social factors that shape investments in, and support of, organ chips and their use in biomedical research, (2) analyze how organ chip models are constructed, including how bioengineers assess the models’ accuracy and ability to stand in for the human organs they seek to mimic, and (3) ascertain how bioengineers and their institutions navigate university-industry relations, including concerns around proprietary rights and technology transfer. To engage directly with the ethical challenges that cut across each of these three aims, I will employ anticipatory governance and anticipatory ethics frameworks.
The expected outcomes of this project are:
- An in-depth analysis of how bioengineers design emergent biotechnologies and their consequences;
- An in-depth analysis of the social and political factors that shape investments in particular biotechnologies, with particular attention to shifting academic-industry relations;
- A innovative study that investigates a highly anticipated biotechnology as it is being developed; and
- A framework to integrate anticipatory ethics approaches in the development of emerging biotechnologies.
The expected outcomes of my residency are:
- Draft two empirical chapters of the dissertation.;
- Finalize one empirical chapter of the dissertation (already drafted); and
- Sharpen the intellectual contributions of the dissertation through engagement with fellow Brocher residents.