Bioprophecy and the politics of the present: notes on the establishment of Mexico's national genomics institute (INMEGEN)

Abstract

In 1999, a small group of genomic entrepreneurs and local politicians started mobilizing the idea of founding a national genomics institute in Mexico. Approximately four years later, and after 18 months of congressional debate, the Mexican National Institute of Genomic Medicine (INMEGEN) was established by presidential decree. As scholars, we are interested in how the call for a high-tech, high-cost genomics institute was able to gain political traction in a country, where many people struggle to secure access to even the most basic level of health care. Those behind the establishment of the INMEGEN used what we call technologies of bioprophecy to present it as a modernizing institution that would move the nation into the "new world order" by bringing not only biological and economic health, but also scientific prestige to Mexico.

Building the genomic nation: ‘Homo Brasilis’ and the ‘Genoma Mexicano’ in comparative cultural perspective

“…Once the sampling and genotyping was achieved, besides the construction of the haplotype platform for supporting further biomedical research with Mexican patients, a series of genetic analyses of population admixture were performed to measure genetic heterogeneity, heterozygosity, genetic distances from other continental populations and between Mexican regions, and proportions of European, Amerindian and African genetic ancestries. During the project, samples from a Zapotec indigenous group were incorporated into the analysis, to serve as a reference point for assessing Amerindian genetic ancestry ( López-Beltrán et al, 2014 ; Silva-Zolezzi et al, 2009 ; Taylor-Alexander and Schwartz-Marín, 2013 ).…”

Lo vivo en la era neoliberal: la OCDE y el desarrollo de la bioeconomía en México

“…Promete acabar con los problemas generados por el sistema capitalista (pobreza, contaminación, desigualdad) mediante el uso de innovaciones tecnocientíficas. Varios autores han señalado la naturaleza promisoria del futuro tecnosocial de la bioeconomía (Brown & Michael 2003, Cooper 2008, Mike Fortun 2005, Taylor-Alexander & Schwartz-Marín 2013. Las promesas tecnocientíficas tienen la capacidad de "generar cambios en el presente, sin importar si éstas o no se cumplen" (Goven & Pavone 2015, p. 314).…”

Plan para desarrollar redes de vinculación y gestión en Instituciones de I&D en Salud: estudio de caso

“…El INMEGEN fue fundado en 2004 como resultado del trabajo previamente efectuado por el Consorcio Promotor del Instituto de Medicina Genómica, integrado por la Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, el Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología, la Secretaría de Salud, y la Fundación Mexicana para la Salud (Instituto Nacional de Medicina Genómica, s. f.). Para su creación, se llevó a cabo la evaluación de factibilidad, preparación y desarrollo de líneas de investigación en temas genómicos relacionados con cáncer pediátrico, gástrico, tumores de células, leucemias, arterioesclerosis y enfermedades metabólicas hereditarias (Jiménez, 2003;Taylor-Alexander & Schwartz-Marín, 2013).…”