Transcending the Genome: The Paradigm Shift to Proteomics - Flagship Project
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CESAGen Theme: Genomics and the Transformation of Knowledge Production
For
most of the 20th century, the gene occupied a privileged position in Western
culture, culminating in the Human Genome Project (HGP). Completed at the
beginning of the 21st century, the legacy of the HGP is more than maps
and sequences. It is credited with leaving an imprint on the goals, methods
and organisation of biological and biomedical research. Referred to as
the ‘omic’ revolution, the objective of this 21st century
research trajectory is to compile complete data sets for numerous biomolecules,
and then to model biological systems in silico by linking various omic
databases together. Moreover, omics and the new systems biology are presented
as constituting a paradigm shift from the genetic reductionism of the
past. A new term – ‘post-genomics’ – has been
coined to describe biological research after the completion of the HGP.
But what is post-genomics? Does the term imply that the genome and the
gene have been transcended? And if so, what has, or might, take their
place? In other words, how are the fields of biology and biomedicine and
their knowledges and social relations being constituted beyond the HGP?
And what might be the role(s) of science and technology studies in these
scientific-social worlds?
This project is an exploration of the transformation of knowledge production
beyond the HGP through the study of the emergent field of ‘proteomics’.
Proteomics is a key example of the new omics. Its object of analysis is
the proteome, an entity which is typically defined as the protein equivalent
of the genome, but in practice the proteome has multiple definitions and
proteomics has contested boundaries.
Our overarching aim is to explore whether, and in what sense, proteomics is, or is part of, a paradigm shift in the production of knowledge in the biosciences. Through a study of proteomics, our project aims to provide insights into the trajectory of knowledge production in the biosciences, and to reflect upon how this relates to research and knowledge production in the field of science and technology studies (STS).
This is a CESAGen Flagship Project. The current work programme is due for completion in September 2006. The position paper for the project is Glasner 2002 ‘Beyond the Human Genome’
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