We speak with Dr Miguel García-Sancho, Chancellor’s Fellow and Senior Lecturer at The University of Edinburgh’s School of Social and Political Science, about his forthcoming book and future research plans. His history of science expertise, which sits between the production of scientific knowledge and the broader context in which this knowledge circulates, sheds new light on innovation systems and on how science and technology are used to achieve a range of practical goals.
What are your main research interests?
I have been working for almost 20 years on the history of contemporary biology. I am particularly interested in biotechnology, bioinformatics and genomics from the mid-1970s to the near present. Since moving to Edinburgh in 2013, I have been exploring interactions between laboratory biology and agricultural sciences, for example I led a project documenting events surrounding the cloning of Dolly the sheep (Historicising Dolly). I am also very interested in how the extraction of data from DNA to better understand medical problems (and the challenges in doing so) has changed over the years.
What are you working on at the moment?
I am currently on sabbatical. I have been finalizing a book based on a large European Research Council project that ended last year, entitled Medical Translation in the History of Modern Genomics, and thinking about future lines of research.
The forthcoming book, A History of Genomics across Species, Communities and Projects, describes the history of the production of the reference sequence of the yeast, pig and human genomes. It is interesting to compare them because they were produced in different ways. We have examined the specific circumstances and interests of the communities of scientists working on producing these sequences and how they affected the capacity of the resulting genomes to solve biological, agricultural and medical problems.
Cross-species comparisons highlight differences in the connection between the production of reference genomes and solving specific problems. While in the cases of yeast and pig, scientists were looking to answer specific biological or agricultural questions, in the case of the human genome there is a huge gap between the production of genetic data and its translation into better medical care. By looking at the strategies used in non-human species, it may be possible to find ways for overcoming this so-called ‘translational gap’.
With our collaborators, we compiled a large dataset of yeast, pig and human DNA sequences submitted to public databases. Working with researchers at the European Bioinformatics Institute, where these sequences are hosted, we are looking at ways of developing this dataset to foster innovation in agricultural and medical science. We explored the potential of this dataset to open new research avenues in the history and sociology of science in a series of publications.
I am now turning my attention to the role of genetics in forensic science, how DNA data can be used to help identify people and the problems it is being applied to. Based on the knowledge I have gained on the history of genomics, I am interested in understanding how DNA can be used to reunite families, especially children that were separated from biological parents against their will. In Spain, the problem of stolen babies, which went on until the early 90s, has attracted a lot of media attention recently. However, it is a problem that has happened in many places, including Ireland and the UK, under very different circumstances.
I will be working in Valencia, Spain, over the next few months with people both within and outside academia who are investigating this problem and how it came about. As I embark on this new direction of research, I want to start building a network across different disciplines and beyond academia.
What do you find most rewarding about your work?
I am finding it very rewarding to explore the day-to-day use of what I investigate and how it can solve issues that go beyond the laboratory walls. A social science and historical perspective on the production of biomedical data can shed new light on the connections between science and socio-political problems that may not be apparent. It helps to avoid establishing a separation between scientific evidence, which is allegedly neutral, and political and social problems that are subject to debate and opinion.
It is very important to understand how scientific knowledge is produced, used and mobilised in different contexts; for instance, the way medical knowledge was mobilised when babies were being stolen is completely different to how it is being used now to find them.
I believe that by bringing together different types of expertise and experiences we’ll be able to tackle the problem better. I am looking forward to working with a journalist investigating the stolen babies scandal and a victim of this practice, and using my history of science expertise to address this problem from different, but complementary perspectives.
How did you become associated with Innogen?
When I came to Edinburgh, I started working closely with colleagues at STIS (Science, Technology and Innovation Studies) and very soon realised how knowledge of the history of biomedicine could help innovation studies.
A historical perspective on the networks involved in the production and use of scientific knowledge is necessary to understand innovations systems and how innovation emerges within them. Indeed, this idea is embedded in a lot of Innogen’s research.
My relationship with colleagues at Innogen has been very helpful and I hope my insights have been equally helpful to them!