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Craft in Biomedical Research

The iPS Cell Technology and the Future of Stem Cell Science

  • Book
  • © 2018

Overview

Authors:
  1. Mianna Meskus

    1. University of Tampere, Tampere, Finland

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  • Discusses key concepts such as the material politics of science, constitutive relationality, nonhuman agency, craftwork, and continuum of instrumentality and care

  • Traces the political and economic expectations placed upon stem cell research in translating human stem cells from the laboratory to the clinic and to the pharmaceutical market

  • Discusses the future of stem cell science in the age of bioindustrialization and large-scale cell banking

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Table of contents (7 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xiii
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  2. Introduction

    • Mianna Meskus
    Pages 1-41

  3. Clinical Translation

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 43-43
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    2. Human Cells to the Market

      • Mianna Meskus
      Pages 45-77

    3. Between Craft and Standardized Production

      • Mianna Meskus
      Pages 79-104

  4. Experimentation

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 105-105
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    2. Making iPS Cells in the Laboratory

      • Mianna Meskus
      Pages 107-146

    3. Instrumentality and Care in Experimental Research

      • Mianna Meskus
      Pages 147-177

  5. Tissue Donation

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 179-179
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    2. Patients and the Material Origins of Knowledge

      • Mianna Meskus
      Pages 181-215

    3. Scientific Craftwork in the Age of Bioindustrialization

      • Mianna Meskus
      Pages 217-232

  6. Back Matter

    Pages 233-240
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Keywords

About this book

This book explores the new ways in which biology is becoming technology. The revolutionary iPS cell technology has made it possible to turn human skin and blood cells into pluripotent stem cells, thus providing an unprecedented opportunity to study the pathophysiology of diseases, understand human developmental biology, and generate new therapies. Drawing from a rich ethnographic study, Meskus traces the making of the iPS cell technology through the perspectives of clinical translation, laboratory experimentation, and tissue donation by voluntary patients. Discussing non-human agency, the embodied and affective basis of knowledge production, and the material politics of science, the book develops the idea of an instrumentality-care continuum as a fundamental dynamic of biomedical craft. This continuum, Meskus argues, opens up a novel perspective to the commercialization and industrial-scale appropriation of human biology, and thereby to the future of ethical biomedical research.

Authors and Affiliations

  • University of Tampere, Tampere, Finland

    Mianna Meskus

About the author

Mianna Meskus is Associate Professor at the University of Tampere, Finland. Her research explores technoscientific shaping of humanity from various perspectives, including reproduction, gender, biomedicine, politics and ethics.

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: Craft in Biomedical Research

  • Book Subtitle: The iPS Cell Technology and the Future of Stem Cell Science

  • Authors: Mianna Meskus

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-46910-6

  • Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan New York

  • eBook Packages: Social Sciences, Social Sciences (R0)

  • Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2018

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-137-47552-7Published: 21 May 2018

  • eBook ISBN: 978-1-137-46910-6Published: 21 May 2018

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: XIII, 240

  • Number of Illustrations: 6 illustrations in colour

  • Topics: Science and Technology Studies, Medical Sociology, Theory of Medicine/Bioethics

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