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 National Science
Foundation Award #0522502 |
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Dissertation Research: Making of the Recombinant University: The Emergence of Biotechnology at Stanford |
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| Investigator(s): |
Angela Creager (PI)
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| Sponsor: |
Princeton University, NJ 08544 6092583090
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| Start Date/Expiration Date |
2005-09-01 to 2006-08-31 (amended 2005-08-03) |
| Awarded Amount to Date: |
$8,900 |
| Abstract: Project Summary:
This dissertation examines the development of recombinant DNA research and technology from its academic origins in the 1970s to its commercialization in the 1980s. The project focuses on its development and use at Stanford, as initially conceived by Paul Berg and his colleagues. The literature on the development of genetic engineering focuses on Stanley Cohen and Herbert Boyer's recombinant DNA technology and subsequent patenting, and Boyer's venture into biotechnology. Yet historians have paid little attention to the role of Stanford's Biochemistry Department, and thus there is no analysis of recombinant DNA technologies in its full context. Inattention to the academic context has meant that Cohen and Boyer's indebtedness to scientists in the Biochemistry Department has not been a part of the narrative of the commercialization of biology.
Intellectual Merit:
By resituating the development of recombinant DNA technologies in their broad scientific context,
this project will add new knowledge about their historical development. This study emphasizes that
scientists involved in developing recombinant DNA technologies were not directly seeking to develop
technologies for genetic engineering. That unexpected feature makes fuller sense if examined in terms
of ongoing experimentation and material culture. That emphasis will provide new perspective on the
commercialization of biology. By analyzing experiments that unexpectedly led to the development of
recombinant DNA technologies, the project will illustrate how the unpredictable nature of experimental
systems influenced the emergence of biotechnology. By paying attention to the culture of sharing and
exchanging research materials, the PI will specify how the commercialization of biology challenged and
changed the moral economy of science, including material exchanges and distribution of credit.
Broader Impacts:
The project will illuminate the commercialization of academic biology, including the changing relationship between academy, government, and industry and the proprietary claims on biomedical knowledge. This dissertation will illuminate the process of how locally constructed experimental systems became globally significant. It will also have practical applications in policy-oriented research, including science policy, economic development/industrial policy, and policies regarding higher education. |
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| NSF Org: |
SES - Division of Social and Economic Sciences |
| Award Number: |
0522502 |
| Award Instrument: |
Standard Grant |
| Program Manager: |
Ronald Rainger
SES Division of Social and Economic Sciences
SBE Directorate for Social, Behavioral & Economic Sciences
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| NSF Program(s): |
Hist & Philosophy of SET |
| Field Application(s): |
Human Subjects |
| Program Reference Code(s): |
COMMUNICATIONS PROGRAM, 9179 |
| Program Element Code(s): |
1353 |
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