Intellectual Focus
The new social, political, legal and ethical challenges facing individuals and society in the era of biotechnology, biomedicine and genomics. The cluster is linked with the associated BIOS Centre| for the Study of Biomedicine, Biotechnology, Bioscience and Society, and its programmes of publication, research, outreach and consultancy. BIOS also has links with cognate research centres across UK, Europe and North America. Researchers work closely with regulators and policy makers in the UK, across Europe and in the United States and Canada. Key research themes: social, political, ethical and legal aspects of neuroscience, psychiatry and mental health; social aspects of genomic medicine and pharmaco-genomics; social, legal and ethical issues in synthetic biology and bioengineering; stem cells, regenerative medicine and embryo research; bioeconomics and biocapital; global biopolitics, regulation and governance of science and technological innovation; transformations of identity in relation to biomedicine and biotechnology; emergence of novel forms of life; Intellectual property, benefit sharing, 'biopiracy'. The cluster also researches bioweapons and biosecurity; agricultural biotech (GM) and Public perceptions of risk. It has a particular interest in comparative research, especially on China and SE Asia.
Key members of cluster
-
Nikolas Rose, Martin White Professor of Sociology, Director of BIOS Centre for the Study of Bioscience, Biomedicine, Biotechnology and Society: social and political history of human sciences; genealogy of subjectivity; history of empirical thought in sociology; changing rationalities and techniques of political power; social, ethical, cultural and legal implications of biological and genetic psychiatry; normality and abnormality; cure and enhancement; illness and health; changing conceptions of ‘life’ and vitalism.
-
llina Singh, Reader in Bioethics and Society in Department of Sociology and the Methodology Institute, Associate Director, BIOS Research Centre: Psycho-social and ethical implications of new biomedical technologies for children and the family. Psychotropic drugs-- ethics, culture and history, families and children; consent and capacity in child psychiatry; neuro-ethics; enhancement; pharmacogenomics; qualitative methodology.
-
Carrie Friese, Lecturer in the Sociology of the Life Sciences and Biomedicine: social studies of knowledge practices in the life sciences and biomedicine; consequences of assisted reproductive and genetic technologies for conceptualizations of family, personhood and nature; human-animal relations in bioscience and biomedicine; models and modelling.
-
Sarah Franklin, Professor of Social Studies of Biomedicine: assisted conception, embryo research, cloning, stem cells, and the new genetics.
-
Alasdair Cochrane, Lecturer in Human Rights: the concept of human dignity in bioethics; the use of human rights in bioethics; and the ethics of animal experimentation.
Doctoral students
Over a dozen research students are based in the Centre, registered in Sociology, most of whom are externally funded from various grant agencies.
Research Fellows and Senior Research Fellows
A number of externally funded research fellows are linked into this research cluster. These include:
Claire Marris, Senior Research Fellow: upstream public engagement; public participation; interactive technology assessment; constructive technology assessment; public risk perceptions; public controversies; environmental risk; risk assessment; risk regulation; scientific expertise; biosafety; GMOs; agricultural biotechnologies.
Filippa Lentzos, Senior Research Fellow: Governance & regulation; policymaking; regulatory implementation & impact; biosecurity; bioterrorism & biological weapons; biological disarmament; biosafety; biodefence; synthetic biology; biotech industry; biological research; genetics & society.
Stefan Guettinger, Postdoctoral Research Fellow: The engineering approach to biology, the construction of parts in synthetic biology, current developments in personal genomics, the role of prediction and explanation in science.
Esteem
-
Rose: invited keynotes in Norway, Finland, Denmark, Germany, France, Switzerland, Brazil, Argentina, Australia, Canada, and United States. Work translated into Swedish, Finnish, German, Russian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Romanian, Portuguese and Spanish. Reviews grants for the ESRC, Australian Research Council, Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada etc. Visiting Professor, Institute of Psychiatry, University of London; Member of Nuffield Council for Bioethics; Editor, BioSocieties: an interdisciplinary journal for social study of the life sciences; Chair, European Neuroscience and Society Network.
-
Singh. Advisor and consultant to the Wellcome Trust, Royal College of Psychiatrists, Institute of Psychiatry, National Institutes for Clinical Excellence; invited speaker at 8 national and international events since 2004; reviewer for multiple national and international journals in clinical psychology, medical sociology, and ethics; reader and referee for Wellcome Trust, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC).
-
Friese: Invited speaker at 9 national and international events since 2004; Council Member of the Section on Science, Knowledge and Technology, American Sociological Association; reviewer for multiple national and international journals in sociology, anthropology, science studies, medical sociology and bioethics; reader and referee for Swiss National Science Foundation.
-
Franklin: Advisor and Consultant to ESRC, MRC, HFEA, the Wellcome Trust and the Wenner Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research. Keynote Speaker at 16 international events since 2004. Reader and Referee for the National Science Foundation (US) and Health Canada.
-
Cochrane: co-convenor of the London Animals Studies Reading Group; Founding Committee member of think-tank the Institute for Animals and Social Justice; invited speaker at 9 national and international events since 2008; reviewer for multiple publishing houses and international journals in ethics and bioethics; reader and referee for the Leverhulme Trust and NWO Council for the Humanities (the Netherlands).
Linked Masters Programme
MSc in Biomedicine and Society had its first regular intake of 24 in October 2005, half from a background in the biosciences, biomedicine or related disciplines and industry. These students provide key input to the work of the cluster, undertake internships and relevant research, and some go on to take PhDs in this area.
Funded research
BIOS is funded for research studentships and fellowships, for conferences and symposia, for specific research projects: Past and current projects include: CSynBI (CEntrel for Synthetic Biology and Innovation), joint centre with Imperial College, London funded by EPSRC: total funding approx. £5 million; GENDEP ELSI (ethical and social aspects of pharmacogenomics of depression) funded by FP6 for approx €500,000; BIONET EU-China network on ethical governance of research in the life sciences and biomedicine, funded by FP6: approx €750,000; Brain, Self and Society, funded by ESRC, approx. £600,000; European Neuroscience and Society Network (ENSN) funded by European Science Foundation: approx. €600,000. Research Income 2003-05: £923,320.
Outreach
Monthly Open BIOS Research seminars; Public Understanding of Science seminars; specialist symposia: (Race in the age of genomic medicine; Social science of stem cells, the Placebo Effect, In Search of gold standards - RCT and EBM); annual conferences (Vital Politics, 2003, Vital Politics II, 2006, Vital Politics III, 2008); public debates (e.g. 'The GM Debate', November 2003); public lectures (e.g. Rabinow, May 2004, Jasanoff, June 2006); SciArt (e.g. State of Mind, 2005).
Future strategy
Includes working for externally funded faculty and researchers, building on work on comparative governance of the life sciences; developing work in synthetic biology, psychiatry, neuroscience and reproductive medicine; analysis of strategies of public engagement and democratising the life sciences; work with Social and Ethical Pillar of Human Brain Project.