National Biobanks: Clinical Labor, Risk Production, and the Creation of Biovalue

Abstract

The development of genomics has dramatically expanded the scope of genetic research, and collections of genetic biosamples have proliferated in countries with active genomics research programs. In this essay, we consider a particular kind of collection, national biobanks. National biobanks are often presented by advocates as an economic "resource" that will be used by both basic researchers and academic biologists, as well as by pharmaceutical diagnostic and clinical genomics companies. Although national biobanks have been the subject of intense interest in recent social science literature, most prior work on this topic focuses either on bioethical issues related to biobanks, such as the question of informed consent, or on the possibilities for scientific citizenship that they make possible. We emphasize, by contrast, the economic aspect of biobanks, focusing specifically on the way in which national biobanks create biovalue. Our emphasis on the economic aspect of biobanks allows us to recognize the importance of what we call clinical labor-that is, the regularized, embodied work that members of the national population are expected to perform in their role as biobank participants-in the creation of biovalue through biobanks. Moreover, it allows us to understand how the technical way in which national biobanks link clinical labor to databases alters both medical and popular understandings of risk for common diseases and conditions.

Valuations of experimental designs in proteomic biomarker experiments and traditional randomised controlled trials

“…Different studies have dealt with things such as racism (Winner 1980;Bowker & Star 1999;Fujimura 2013), accuracy and precision (Wise 1995;Mackenzie 1999), gender (Haraway 1988Harding 1991), and calculation (Porter 1995), while other studies have focussed on the political economy of biomedical science through predefined notions such as capitalism and commodification (Shiva 1997;Waldby 2002;Sunder Rajan 2006;Rose 2007;Mitchell & Waldby 2010).…”

The hybrid bioeconomy of umbilical cord blood banking: Re-examining the narrative of opposition between public and private services

“…Accordingly, population-based biobanks partake in the construction of national and polity identities (Busby and Martin, 2006). STS studies have stressed how tissues and other body parts are involved in complex economic systems of exchange and circulation, and ideals of gift, donation and solidaristic public system are embroiled in processes of capitalization and biovalue production (Waldby, 2002;Mitchell and Waldby, 2010).…”

La United Kingdom Stem Cell Bank

“…la UKSCB : une mise en mémoire sélective et durable de l'information La nature prospective de la banque nationale britannique et l'établissement rigoureux d'un archivage de données fixant des correspondances étendues depuis le donneur, la dérivation de lignées, jusqu'à l'équipe recevant le produit biologique donnent une valeur biologique aux produits (Mitchell et Waldby, 2010). La mise en mémoire de l'information est sélective et durable.…”