ABSTRACT
Scientific research and innovation are increasingly pursued as alternatives to social policy in the domains of medicine and public health. The advancement of knowledge and development of new technologies are associated with improvements in ‘wealth and health’, if they can be translated from the laboratory to the clinic and the market. While ‘translation’ has therefore become a key concern in medical science and innovation policy, the oft-repeated image of a separation between research and its application may obscure how specific conceptions of the public good created in medical research are already present in ‘basic’ research. Drawing from case studies of different medical research projects, I will discuss how expectations of the public good are present in collections of human tissue and associated data for medical research. Highlighting particular dimensions of the promise of medical research, I focus on medical research collections as research infrastructures; the role of data in shaping the promise of medical research, and different perspectives on value creation in research in Singapore, India, and the United States. In conclusion, I turn towards the implications for citizenship by highlighting how particular forms of belonging, rights and responsibilities are created in medical research collections.
Dr. Erik Aarden, Department of Science and Technology Studies, University of Vienna, Austria
