York Festival of Ideas: Regenerative Medicine and Time to the Clinic

Sociology has always had a strong interest in medicine, and more recently, in the impact of the new biomedical sciences on medicine. The social science grant agency, the ESRC is itself keen to support new work on ‘the biosocial’, how the social and the biological are co-produced. One area where the biosocial is especially important for sociological inquiry is Regenerative Medicine (RM). Its distinctive feature is the use of live cells and tissues to treat disease, replacing diseased tissue and organs with new, healthy and specially-grown tissue. Within the UK, the field of RM is surrounded by considerable promise and high expectation. It is championed as a potential source of cures for a range of disorders, and the Government has identified the field as one of the wealth-generating  ‘Eight Great Technologies’ which help drive the economic growth.  In light of this, various Government-supported initiatives have been launched to accelerate innovation within the field and bring new therapies to patients sooner.

The field of RM, however, is still very much in its infancy, and there are very few therapies available in the present day. Sociological research being undertaken by members of SATSU in the Department shows how clinicians and investigators working on new RM therapies are encountering many significant challenges that reflect the ‘biosocial’ at work: how to stabilise and standardise the tissue they work with, what sort of legal and regulatory classification it should have compared to other areas of medicine, whether they need new types of organisational and clinical systems to deliver RM to patients, and how should the long term benefits and costs of RM be assessed?

As part of the York Festival of Ideas, Andrew Webster, Ruchi Higham and John Gardner from the Sociology Department will join Paul Genever and Amanda Barnes from the Department of Biology will lead a public discussion on RM. By bringing the biological and social sciences together, they will provide an overview of the hopes (and hype) but, more importantly, the likely and diverse clinical paths that regenerative medicine will take and within what timeframes. The session will involve a lively and informed debate about RM and help participants to understand better its likely long-term impact in the NHS and elsewhere.

Details:

June 9^th, 6:00pm – 7:30pm

The Diana Bowles Lecture Theatre, Department of Biology. Room K018 (Ground floor Biology Building)

Admittance/ticket price: Free entry

Booking details Via the Central Festival Team

Website: www.york.ac.uk/satsu/regenablemed

Sad News about Graham Lewis

The Sociology Department has received sad news. Graham Lewis, a long standing member of our department with particular links in SATSU has died.


Andrew Webster, who knew and worked with Graham for many years has written an obituary. Graham will be sadly missed.

Please follow the link.

Regenerative Medicine and Sociology

Sociology has always had a strong interest in medicine, and more recently, in the impact of the new biomedical sciences on medicine. An emerging area for sociological inquiry is Regenerative Medicine (RM) which Andrew Webster has already published on. Its distinctive feature is the use of live cells and tissues to treat disease, replacing diseased tissue and organs with new, healthy and specially-grown tissue. There has been considerable social and political controversy surrounding the use of cells, especially embryonic stem cells, but these debates have largely subsided, and now RM is widely heralded as potential source of cures for a range of illnesses.

The field of RM, however, is still very much in its infancy, and there are very few therapies available in the present day. Clinicians and investigators working on new RM therapies are encountering many significant challenges relating to financing, manufacturing, regulation, and organisational inertia. These pose important questions that sociology can address, especially in terms of how healthcare systems such as the NHS may – or indeed, may not – embrace and embed biomedical innovation. 

Equally importantly, RM raises questions about ‘Life’, in the form of tissues and cells, and how this is being manipulated, harnessed and in some cases commercialised in the name of ‘health and wealth’. Simultaneously, new social groups and agencies are forming to govern and facilitate this harnessing of life. From a sociological standpoint, we may ask: how do these novel forms of life reflect their cultural context? How do they change the boundaries of what is seen as ‘life’ itself? What discourses are being mobilised to promote innovation? What novel social organisations are emerging, and how do these upset or reaffirm traditional professional divisions?  Whose viewpoints and interests are being heard, and whose are being ignored? And more broadly: how exactly are social concerns and technological developments intertwined and shaping one another?

John Gardner

Andrew Webster

It is these types of questions that are being addressed by our ESRC-fundedREGenableMED project.  The project team comprises ten researchers from the Universities of York (Andrew Webster, Graham Lewis and John Gardner), Edinburgh, Birmingham and Sussex, with specific expertise in science and technologies studies, law, commercialisaiton, and technology horizon scanning.  The three year project is now into its second year, and we have been interviewing a range of stakeholders in the RM field, as well as collecting reams of secondary data on clinical and commercial activity, much of which is being collated in an extensive database. Our first paper, which explores the perceived novelty of RM will soon be published in RegenerativeMedicine in September. Ultimately, we hope that our broad, sociological perspective on the field will enable us to inform and guide responsible innovation in the area.    

New Association for Studies in Innovation, Science and Technology

Andew Webster is involved in setting up a new Association for Studies in Innovation, Science and Technology called AsSIST-UK. This association is having a launch event at the University of Sussex in August. Participants represent 30 different organisations from across the UK and some colleagues will be coming from abroad. Even some major publishing houses, including Nature, will be in attendance.

AsSIST-UK aims establish stronger links, and establish a national voice for the Study of Innovation, science and technology (STIS). The meeting will allow for a reflect on what STIS has made and can make towards understanding of innovation systems, governance, value practices and the role of civil society.

Andrew Webster Retirement Reception

Prof Andrew Webster retired on 30 September 2014 and a retirement reception was held in Wentworth College on Wednesday 15 October.

Whilst Andrew has retired from teaching and departmental roles he is still going to spend time in SATSU working on the numerous projects that are ongoing in SATSU.

About 30 colleagues and friends attended the reception and this was followed by a dinner in York in the evening.

Both Nik Brown and Phil Stanworth both spoke of Andrew's enthusiasm and endless energy and cast serious doubts on his ability to stop working altogether unless summonsed to do so by Helen.

We wish him a long and happy retirement.

More photographs are available at: www.york.ac.uk/sociology/about/news-and-events/news/2014/andrew-retirement 

£1.3m ESRC Research Grant awarded to SATSU

Andrew Webster, Director of  SATSU (the Science and Technology Studies Unit based in the Department), has recently been awarded a large research grant by the Economic and Social Research Council to undertake work in the sociology of science field which focuses on current developments in regenerative medicine and stem cells. This is pertinent research considering regular media coverage about patients seeking cell theapy treatment abroad as a last resort to cure terminal illness.

The grant is for £1.3m and will begin in late spring, so a number of postdoc job opportunities will appear soon. The research explores in particular developments in cell therapies, to track the interplay between corporations  clinics and regulators, especially in regard to perceptions of its clinical utility, and the patterns of regulatory oversight that are seen to be needed. We hope thereby to determine the current and potential impact of the field on health and healthcare systems and how these in turn shape its development. 

The work builds on previous work in SATSU - the REMEDIE project - funded by the European Commission and a national ESRC programme on stem cells that Andrew coordinated. Andrew recently gave a presentation to the All Party Parliamentary Group for Social Science and Policy on the issues raised for the NHS. Meanwhile SATSU's doctoral researcher, Ruchhi Higham, is also working in the area examining the ways the field disrupts conventional approaches to clinical trials. 

More generally, this research ties in with the European Commission-funded COST Action called 'Bio-objects', that Andrew also Chairs.