Making Doable
Problems within
Controversial
Science
U.S. and Swedish Scientists’
Experience of Gene
Transfer Research
Hannah Grankvist
This study explores how scientists within the controver-sial and technically advanced scientific field of gene transfer make their research doable. Gene transfer is a technology with the ability to manipulate genetic char-acteristics by using genetic sequences or genetically modified organisms to treat or prevent diseases in hu-mans. Based on in-depth interviews with gene transfer scientists and key individuals from different regulatory agencies and advisory boards in Sweden and the U.S.A., the study focuses on how scientists describe and rea-son about how they handle the various problems that confront them – from attracting funding to getting valid informed consent for an uncertain and experimental medical intervention. New genetic technologies like gene transfer bring with them great therapeutic prom-ises. But at the same time they raise public fears and concerns. The study analyzes relationships between regulatory demands and scientific practices. It discusses how gene transfer scientists attempt to gain public ac-ceptance by framing gene transfer as an ordinary kind of therapy, while simultaneously – in order to obtain the necessary external funding for an expensive and ex-tensive research – heralding it as a revolutionary new technology. With the help of concepts from science and technology studies, the book sheds new light on how controversial and ethically debated biomedical research is made doable.
Hannah Grankvist is a researcher at the Department
of Thematic Studies – Technology and Social Change, Linköping University. This is her doctoral thesis.
Department of Technology and Social Change Linköpings universitet
SE-581 83 Linköping Sweden 2011
