May 26, 2007
Document Repository
After a long end-of-semester pause we are finally getting around to updating and formalizing the “documents” sections of the website. A new format will be used for documents posted, which will include a new cover sheet, second page (which includes copyright and citation information) and a new text style. For examples: What is a Laboratory?, Vital Systems Security, and Pathogens and the Strategy of Preparedness. The existing working papers will be converted to this style over the coming weeks. We have also decided to divide the documents posted into a number of categories, including, at the least, working papers, concept notes, and exchanges. The aspiration is to follow the broader intention at ARC to acknowledge and valorize the multiple practices and products that contribute to inquiry. It would be much appreciated if collaborators would be willing to assist in reformatting the documents and in making sure that we have the most recent versions of documents they would like posted.
May 23, 2007
from deCode to decentralization: Genetics is about to get personal
A new Silicon Valley company, 23andMe, closed its Series A Preferred Stock financing yesterday (May 22), and so opened a mode of organizing genomics research that seems new, to me, in at least two ways.
The founders of 23andMe are trying a new approach to financing genomics research using high-density genome-wide scanning technologies. It is not clear from initial public documents what the founders envision as the future sources of 23andMe’s income stream, but a couple of candidates are pharmaceuticals firms and user-subscribers. Beyond VC, their approach seems to be more mom-and-pop retail than Godzilla grant or government contract. This decentralized mode of funding research dovetails with a decentralized mode of gathering genetic information.
23andMe proposes to enable clients to collect information about their own DNA for applications a non-scientist can understand. They could be as simple as genealogical research, or as complicated as identifying one’s own potential future diseases to work with pharmaceuticals companies proactively on diagnosis and treatment. 23andMe will manage the personal genetic information using new proprietary web-based software tools. At the same time, it seems, 23andME will seek permission from its users to compile mass data sets of genetic information for use in “basic science” genomics research.
The above conclusions are sketchy. The 23andMe website is short on details, seemingly oriented to ordinary consumers and not hard scientists. (And if it weren’t, I wouldn’t have the expertise to decypher it anyway.) See for yourself: http://www.23andme.com/ .
23andMe is scheduled to launch later this year. It seems worth tracking, as a decentralized mode of knowledge production and capital accumulation in human genomics. As they say, Don’t panic, we’re here to help.
May 4, 2007
Anthropological Collaboration & Writing Form
Just came across a new feature of the journal Ethnos, called “Anthropologists Are Talking” which has the following mission statement:
The aim of the series is to provide an alternative to the standard, single-authorarticle that academic journals generally publish in order to give spaceto a more dialogic kind of reflection. When they do not write, anthropologistsarguably spend much of their professional time (though perhaps not as muchas they might like) engaged in informal academic conversations, corridor talk,and debates with colleagues at seminars and conferences. ‘AnthropologistsAre Talking’ seeks to emulate these kinds of informal conversations in theconviction that they often turn out to be formative for the ideas that laterbecome the basis of our publications. The series is intended to explore theseinformal kinds of inspiration and knowledge production that otherwise rarelymake it into academic journals. The series does so by bringing together agroup of anthropologists and inviting them to talk candidly and spontaneouslyabout a contemporary issue of common concern to them.
Sounds quite similar to what we’ve been trying to do in our best moments in the Labinar. This installment of AAT is a discussion about “anthropology after globalization” between Eric Hirsch, Bruce Kapferer, Emily Martin, and Anna Tsing
May 2, 2007
Limor Wins the Elsie Clews Parson Prize
Here’s some wonderful news: our visiting friend and colleague Limor Darash has won the American Ethnologist Society’s Prize for the best graduate student article (otherwise known as the Elsie Clews Parsons Prize). The article, which is part of the dissertation Limor has been completing while at Berkeley, is entitled “The Limits of Emergencies and the Time of Event: The Pre-Event Configuration of Biological Threats.” The prize will be awarded next week at the AES annual meeting. Many congratulations to Limor.