Pages
Short papers 7-10 pages reflecting either
- upon your experiences in scientific laboratories or biotech firms on topics covered in class; or
- topics raised by speakers in class combined with readings on and beyond the syllabus.
Papers this year included:
- Reflections on how Chinese postdocs negotiate American laboratory experiences;
- Comparative regulatory structures in different countries for stem cell research;
- How different motivational and career structures are coordinated in a research laboratory run by a physician-scientist;
- Reflections on how organizationally to represent the professional interests of physician-scientists;
- A fieldwork paper following oncologists and primary care physicians to watch how patient-doctor communication is negotiated: language code-switching, use of statistics, framing of narratives of hope, etc.
SES # | TOPICS |
---|---|
1 | Introduction and Overview: Social and Ethical Questions |
2 | Polymers for Drug Delivery and Tissue Engineering - Prof. Robert Langer, Kenneth J. Germeshausen Professor of Chemical Engineering, MIT |
3 | Embodiment and Structural Biology, Phenomenology of Medicine - Natasha Myers (STS Program, MIT) |
4 | Tissue Engineering - Dr. Joseph Vacanti, John Homans Professor of Surgery and Director of Pediatric Transplanation, MGH |
5 | Clinical Narratives - Prof. Mary-Jo DelVecchio Good, Professor of Social Medicine, HMS |
6 | Photomedicine and Non-invasive Technologies - Dr. R. Rox Anderson, Director Wellman Center for Photomedicine and Professor of Dermatology, MGH, HMS, HST |
7 | Multidisciplinary Research - Prof. Brian Seed, Professor of Genetics and Health, Science and Technology, Director of Thematic Center for Computational Biology, MGH, HMS, HST |
8 | Angiogensis; Translation from Bench to Clinic - Dr. Judah Folkman, Andrus Professor of Pediatric Surgery and Professor of Cell Biology, HMS |
9 | Stem Cells - Dr. George Q. Daley, M.D./Ph.D., Associate Professor of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology, HMS, Children’s Hospital, Brigham and Women’s, and Dana-Farber |
10 | Facilitating Multidisciplinary Research at MGH - Dr. John Parrish, Director MGH-Harvard Cutaneous Biology Research Center, Director of CIMIT, Chief Dermatology Service, MGH, and founding Director Wellman Center for Photomedicine |
11 | Organ Transplanation in Turkey, Ethical Models of Organ Donation - Aslihan Sanal, STS Program, MIT |
12 | Ethics in Medicine - Prof. Dan Brock, Prof. of Social Medicine and Director of the Division of Medical Ethics, Harvard Medical School |
13 | Wrap-up |
SES # | TOPICS | READINGS |
---|---|---|
1 | Introduction and Overview: Social and Ethical Questions | Fischer, Michael M. J. “Four Frameworks for Social and Ethical Questions.” 2005. (PDF) |
2 | Polymers for Drug Delivery and Tissue Engineering - Prof. Robert Langer, Kenneth J. Germeshausen Professor of Chemical Engineering, MIT |
Jasanoff, Sheila. Designs on Nature: Science and Democracy in Europe and the United States. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2005, introduction, chapter 1, and 2. ISBN: 9780691118116.
Langer, R., and D. A. Tirell. “Designing materials for biology and medicine.” Nature 428, no. 6982 (April 1, 2004): 487-92. Langer, R. “Where a Pill Won’t Reach.” Sci Am 288, no. 4 (April 2003): 50-7. |
3 | Embodiment and Structural Biology, Phenomenology of Medicine - Natasha Myers (STS Program, MIT) |
Myers, Natasha. “Embodiments and the Body-Work of Modeling in Protein Crystallography.” 2005. (Manuscript)
Good, Byron. “The experience of being a medical student.” Chapter 3 in Medicine, Rationality and Experience: An Anthropological Perspective. Cambridge, UK; New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 1993. ISBN: 9780521415583. Prentice, Rachel. “The Anatomy of a Surgical Simulation: The Mutual Articulation of Bodies in and through the Machine.” Social Studies of Science 35, no. 6 (2005): 837-866. |
4 | Tissue Engineering - Dr. Joseph Vacanti, John Homans Professor of Surgery and Director of Pediatric Transplanation, MGH |
Vacanti, J. P., and R. Langer. “Tissue Engineering: the design and fabrication of living replacement devices for surgical reconstruction and transplanation.” Lancet 354 (1999): 32-34. (Suppl 1)
Langer, R., and J. P. Vacanti. “Tissue Engineering.” Science 260, no. 5110 (May 14, 1993): 920-6. |
5 | Clinical Narratives - Prof. Mary-Jo DelVecchio Good, Professor of Social Medicine, HMS |
Good, M. J., I. Kuter, S. Powell, et al. “Medicine on the Edge: Conversations with Oncologists.” Technoscientific Imaginaries: Conversations, Profiles, and Memoirs. Edited by George E. Marcus. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1995. ISBN: 9780226504438.
Good, Mary-Jo DelVecchio. American Medicine: the Quest for Competence. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1995, chapter 8, p. 265. ISBN: 9780520088962. Good, M. J. “The biotechnical embrace.” Cult Med Psychiatry 25, no. 4 (December 2001): 395-410. |
6 | Photomedicine and Non-invasive Technologies - Dr. R. Rox Anderson, Director Wellman Center for Photomedicine and Professor of Dermatology, MGH, HMS, HST |
Pitsillides, C. M., E. K. Joe, X. Wei, R. R. Anderson, and C. P. Lin. “Selective cell targeting with light-absorbing microparticles and nanoparticles.” Biophys J 84, no. 6 (June 2003): 4023-4032.
Middelkamp-Hup, M. A., I. Sanchez-Carpintero, S. Kossodo, P. Waterman, S. Gonzalez, M. C. Mihm, Jr., and R. R. Anderson. “Photodynamic therapy for cutaneous proliferative vascular tumors in a mouse model.” J Invest Dermatol 121, no. 3 (September 2003): 634-639. Manstein, D., G. S. Herron, R. K. Sink, H. Tanner, and R. R. Anderson. “Fractional photothermolysis: a new concept for cutaneous remodeling using microscopic patterns of thermal injury.” Lasers Surg Med 34, no. 5 (2004): 426-438. Yaroslavsky, A. N, J. Barbosa, V. Neel, C. DiMarzio, and R. R. Anderson. “Combining multispectral polarized light imaging and confocal microscopy for localization of nonmelanoma skin cancer.” J Biomed Opt 10, no. 1 (January-February 2005): 14011. |
7 | Multidisciplinary Research - Prof. Brian Seed, Professor of Genetics and Health, Science and Technology, Director of Thematic Center for Computational Biology, MGH, HMS, HST |
Yang, Y., and B. Seed. “Site-specific gene targeting in mouse embryonic stem cells with intact bacterial artificial chromosomes.” Nat Biotechnol 21, no. 4 (April 2003): 447-451.
Randow, F., and B. Seed. “Endoplasmic reticulum chaperone gp96 is required for innate immunity but not cell viability.” Nat Cell Biol 3, no. 10 (October 2001): 891-6. Kowalczyk, Liz. “Lucrative Licensing Deals with Drugs, Biotech Firms are Raising Ethics Issues for Hospitals.” Boston Globe (March 24, 2002). “NeoGenesis and Massachussetts General Hospital Announce Drug Discovery Collaboration Agreement.” PRNewswire - Neogenesis, July 23, 2002. |
8 | Angiogensis; Translation from Bench to Clinic - Dr. Judah Folkman, Andrus Professor of Pediatric Surgery and Professor of Cell Biology, HMS |
Folkman, J. “Angiogenesis.” In Harrison’s Textbook of Internal Medicine. Edited by E. Braunwald, A. S. Fauci, D. L. Kasper, S. L. Hauser, D. L. Longo, and J. L. Jameson. 15th ed. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill, 2001, pp. 417-530. ISBN: 9780079136862 (set).
ISBN: 9780070072732 (v. 1), and ISBN: 9780070072749 (v. 2). ———. “Fighting cancer by attacking its blood supply.” Sci Am 275, no. 3 (September 1996): 150-4. ———. “Seminars in Medicine of the Beth Israel Hospital, Boston. Clinical applications of research on angiogenesis.” N Engl J Med 333, no. 26 (December 28, 1995): 1757-63. |
9 | Stem Cells - Dr. George Q. Daley, M.D./Ph.D., Associate Professor of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology, HMS, Children’s Hospital, Brigham and Women’s, and Dana-Farber |
Daley, G. Q. “Customized human embryonic stem cells.” Nat Biotechnol 23, no. 7 (July 2005): 826-8.
Daley, G. Q., M. J. Sandel, and J. D. Moreno. “Stem cell research: science, ethics and policy.” Med Ethics (Burlington, MA) 12, no. 1 (Winter 2005): 5. Daley, G. Q. “Missed opportunities in embryonic stem-cell research.” N Engl J Med 351, no. 7 (August 12, 2004): 627-8. Committee on Guidelines for Human Embryonic Stem Cell Research, Institute of Medicine and National Research Council. “Guidelines for human embryonic stem cell research.” Washington, DC: National Academies Press, 2005. |
10 | Facilitating Multidisciplinary Research at MGH - Dr. John Parrish, Director MGH-Harvard Cutaneous Biology Research Center, Director of CIMIT, Chief Dermatology Service, MGH, and founding Director Wellman Center for Photomedicine |
Stokes, Donald E. Pasteur’s Quadrant: Basic Science and Technological Innovation. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press, 1997, chapter 1. ISBN: 9780815781783.
Abelmann, Walter H., ed. Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology: The First 25 Years 1970-1995. Cambridge, MA: The Division, 2004. ISBN: 9780674014589. |
11 | Organ Transplanation in Turkey, Ethical Models of Organ Donation - Aslihan Sanal, STS Program, MIT | Sanal, Aslihan. ““Robin Hood” of techno-turkey or organ trafficking in the state of ethical beings.” Culture, Medicine, and Psychiatry 28, no. 3 (September 2004): 281-309. |
12 | Ethics in Medicine - Prof. Dan Brock, Prof. of Social Medicine and Director of the Division of Medical Ethics, Harvard Medical School | |
13 | Wrap-up |
Course Meeting Times
Lectures: 1 session / week, 1.5 hours / session
Course Overview
The course will focus on changing scientific paradigms and their social medicine (social, ethical, clinical) implications. The course will look very closely at the development of new biotechnologies, at the basic science level, and the social and ethical issues associated with these new technologies. For instance, xenotransplantation provides a window into new understandings of immune mechanisms, but at the same time creates such troubling ethical issues as changing requirements for informed consent and the nature of risk to society. Stem cells and tissue engineering provide a window into both therapeutic cloning and the ethics of, and legislative control of, embryo research. Basic scientists, clinicians, bioethicists and social scientists will make presentations on topics including the changing political economy of biotech research (university-industry relations, venture capital, etc.); problems associated with the adaptation of new biotechnologies for clinical settings; the ethical issues that emerge from clinical research and clinical use of new technologies (including clinical trials); and the broader social ethics associated with the differential availability and use of new technologies, pharmaceuticals or experimental procedures across rich and poor nations. Students and faculty will reflect on these issues based on cases presented in class, drawing on recent literature from medical ethics, the social studies of science, and medical anthropology.
This year we particularly want to explore how “interdisciplinary” work gets accomplished. We have invited a number of people involved in the new MGH Thematic Centers to talk about their labs, their thinking about the opportunities such new Centers might create, the labors of putting such Centers together, and the scientific trajectories envisioned. We will also continue following the angiogenesis story that has been unfolding over the past several years, as well as tissue engineering and stem cell initiatives.
Readings
Use of cases and recent literature.
Grading
Pass/fail for medical students. Separate arrangements are made for STS graduate students.
Assignments
Two short papers are required.