Mapping Stem Cell Innovation In Action
Abstract
This interdisciplinary collaboration draws together expertise in the sociology of science and technology, medical sociology, medicine/biological science, biomedical ethics and public policy, in a study tracking the development trajectory of innovative stem cell research and clinical treatment. An ethnography of an international centre at the forefront of fetal and adult stem cell research for the treatment of liver disease and diabetes will be contextualised more broadly by interviews with key UK stakeholders. A social science, scientific, medical and ethics literature and policy document analysis will map discourses, debates and shifts in the area of stem cell research. Through early engagement with these important areas in stem cell research and treatment, the study will explore how a new technology might be encouraged or prevented from diffusing from 'bench to bedside', and potentially to market place. It will investigate how discursive and practical procedures and resources are aligned in the process of routinisation of stem cell treatments, and identify how different discourses about stem cells may be mobilised and interpreted by key stakeholders. Theoretically, the study will contribute to sociological literature in the areas of Science and Technology Studies, Time, and the Body. It will also contribute to the development of a more socially embedded account of ethical deliberation and decision making about policies and their effects, as well as to the social and policy contexts of professional and research ethics. This research will produce an insightful social scientific analysis that is commensurate with the pace of contemporary scientific stem cell research. The information gained will be of direct benefit to government and statutory advisory bodies and user groups. It will also contribute to the development of a UK/European legal, regulatory and policy framework, in addition to more general public debate about stem cell research and treatment.
Contacts
Prof Clare Williams
Prof Alan Cribb
Prof Bobbie Farsides
Prof Nigel Heaton
Prof Mike Michael
Prof Steven Wainwright
Outputs
Poster
http://www.york.ac.uk/res/sci/posters/williamsproject.pdf
Publications
Note: papers on stem cells and the media by Clare Williams are from earlier Wellcome Trust funded research
Cribb, A. Wainwright, S., Williams, C., Bobbie Farsides and Michael, M. Towards the applied: the construction of ethical positions in stem cell translational research.
In Press, Medicine, Health Care & Philosophy. Available for viewing here - pdf
Williams, C. Wainwright, S.P. Ehrich, K. & Michael, M. (2008) Human embryos as boundary objects? Some reflections on the biomedical worlds of embryonic stem cells and pre-implantation genetic diagnosis. New Genetics & Society (in press).
Wainwright, S.P. Williams, C. Cribb, A. Farsides, C. & Michael, M. (2006) Ethical boundary-work in the embryonic stem cell laboratory. Special Issue, de Vries, R. et al (Ed) 'The View from Here: Bioethics and the Social Sciences'. Sociology of Health & Illness, 28: 732-748
Wainwright, S.P & Williams, C. (forthcoming) The Body, Biomedicine & Society: Reflections on High-Tech Medicine. Palgrave Innovative Health Technology (Research Monograph) Book Series, Editors: Andrew Webster & Sally Wyatt, London : Palgrave.
Wainwright, S.P. Williams, C. & Michael, M. Farsides, B. & Cribb, A. (in press) Remaking the body? Scientists’ genetic discourses and practices as examples of changing expectations on embryonic stem cell therapy for diabetes . New Genetics & Society.
Wainwright, S.P. Williams, C. Cribb, A. Farsides, C. & Michael, M. (in press) Ethical boundary-work in the embryonic stem cell laboratory. In de Vries, R. et al (Ed) The View from Here: Bioethics and the Social Sciences , SHI Monograph, Oxford : Blackwell.
Wainwright, S.P. Williams, C. Persaud, S.J. & Jones, P.M. (2006) Real science, biological bodies and stem cells: constructing images of beta cells in the biomedical science lab. Social Theory & Health 4: 275–298.
Wainwright, S.P. Williams, C. & Michael, M. Farsides, B. & Cribb, A. (2006) From bench to bedside? Biomedical scientists' expectations of stem cell science as a future therapy for diabetes. Social Science & Medicine 63: 2052–2064.
Kitzinger, J. Williams, C. & Henderson, L. (2007) Science, media and society: the framing of bioethical debates around embryonic stem cell research between 2000 and 2005. In Glasner, P. et al (Eds) New
Genetics, New Social Formations Routledge: London: 204-30.
Kitzinger, J., & Williams, C. (in press) Forecasting science futures: legitimising hope and calming fears in the embryo stem cell debate. In Drummond, C. (Ed) Fabulous Humans Edinburgh : A&T Clark.
Wainwright, S.P. Williams, C. Michael, M. Farsides, B. & Cribb, A. (2006) Contested cultures: views from the beta cell lab on controversial science and ES cell therapies for diabetes. Poster, International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR), 4th Annual Meeting, Toronto , Canada (29 June-1 July). Published in Abstracts of the 2006 ISSCR Conference. Abstract below. Poster here - pdf
Williams, C. (2006) Editorial - The ethics of multidisciplinary research. Clinical Ethics. 1(1): 37-38.
Williams, C. (2006) Editorial – consent to use aborted fetuses for stem cell research. Clinical Ethics 1 (4): 209-10.
Williams, C. (2006) Editorial – Ethics and consent in patient treatment. Clinical Ethics 1 (3): 152.
Williams, C. (2006) Editorial - User involvement in empirical ethics research. Clinical Ethics 1 (2): 94.
Wainwright, S.P. (2005) Can stem cells cure Parkinson's disease? Embryonic steps toward a regenerative brain medicine. British Journal of Neuroscience Nursing 1 (3): 61-66.
Kitzinger, J. & Williams, C. (2005) Forecasting science futures: legitimising hope and calming fears in the embryo stem cell debate. Social Science & Medicine 61: 731-740.
Williams, C., Kitzinger, J., & Henderson, L. (2003) Envisaging the embryo in stem cell research: discursive strategies and media reporting of the ethical debates. Sociology of Health & Illness 25: 793-814.
Abstracts from project publications
Human embryos as boundary objects? Some reflections on the biomedical worlds of embryonic stem cells and pre-implantation genetic diagnosis. New Genetics & Society (in press).
In this paper we offer some reflections on embryos in the biomedical worlds of embryonic stem cells (ESC) and pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD). We draw upon two ethnographic studies of the social practices of PGD and embryonic stem cell science to examine the notion of boundary-objects as an approach for understanding the social construction of embryos. We analyse the ways in which human embryos have similar and different meanings in the related social worlds of ESC and PGD labs through a discussion of two major themes: the goals of PGD and ESC; and linking the worlds of ESC and PGD. We suggest the interface between the two cultures of PGD and ESC science can facilitate the flow of concepts, skills, materials, and techniques within and between these two social worlds. In conclusion, we argue this is a salient case study of the production of biomedicine as a social and material practice in the emerging sphere of new medical technologies.
From core set to assemblage: on the dynamics of exclusion and inclusion in the failure to derive beta Cells from embryonic stem cells (Science Studies)
In this exploratory paper, we examine the controversy surrounding the Lumelsky protocol (which potentially could have transformed the procedures for differentiating embryonic stem cells into beta cells for diabetes treatment). This is analysed initially using Collins’ core set model to show how the controversy over epistemic claims was resolved (and the Lumelsky protocol deemed to be a failure). This approach is then contrasted to an analysis in terms of scientific ‘assemblages’ characterised not by the resolution of epistemic controversy, but by the ‘irresolution’ or openness of social associations amongst scientists. We suggest that scientists who jumped on the ‘Lumelsky bandwagon’ can be rehabilitated, partly because of the recognised chronic uncertainty in the stem cell field. Thus, alongside the judgement, resolution and exclusion mapped by core set analysis, there is ‘understanding’, irresolution and inclusion suggested by ‘assemblage analysis’.
Remaking the body? Scientists’ genetic discourses and practices as examples of changing expectations on embryonic stem cell therapy for diabetes (New Genetics & Society)
In this paper we discuss genetic discourses and practices in stem cell science. We report on how biomedical scientists, in both the UK and the USA , view the scientific literature and their own experimental research in the emerging field of human Embryonic Stem (hES) cells. We focus on the genetic manipulation of stem cells to make specialised (beta) cells as a potential cure for diabetes. We draw on Gieryn’s notion of boundary work as an analytical motif, and suggest this is a productive way to theorise boundary crossings in the shifting landscapes of expectations in the field of new medical technologies. We argue that initial expectations of a revolution in regenerative medicine have been damped down by the difficulties of making insulin producing pancreatic beta cells from stem cells. We contend the consequent shifts in expectations have led to the emergence of other more radical experimental strategies (such as using oncogenes) in the search for potential cures for Type-1 diabetes. In conclusion, we argue that regenerative medicine is a fruitful example of the shaping of contested biomedical landscapes and we contend that embryonic stem cells are a productive case study of the interactions between genetics, science and society.
Contested cultures: views from the beta cell lab on controversial science and ES cell therapies for diabetes. (Abstracts of the 2006 ISSCR Conference)
In this paper we outline aspects of our social science research on the problems and prospects of stem cell biology in the field of diabetes. We report on how seven biomedical scientists from one UK lab, who are working on turning (human) embryonic stem cells into insulin producing beta cells / islet cells, view the scientific literature and their own experimental research in this emerging field. In particular, we highlight the impact of two seminal papers, published in the prestigious journal Science, on the sphere of stem cell therapy for diabetes. We draw on Harry Collins’ notions of the experimenters’ regress and the core set to connect our data and analysis to broader sociological views on the nature and making of contested science. More generally, we argue that embryonic stem cells are a productive case study through which to develop qualitative sociological writings on the shaping of science, technology and society.
Ethical boundary-work in the embryonic stem cell laboratory (Sociology of Health & Illness)
Existing accounts of the ethics of stem cell research are invariably de-contextualised reviews of the ethical and legal literature. In this paper, in contrast, we present a socially embedded account of some of the ethical implications of stem cell research, from the perspectives of scientists directly involved in this area. Based on an ethnography of two leading embryonic stem cell laboratories in the UK , our data forms part of the findings from a larger project mapping the scientific, medical, social and ethical dimensions of innovative stem cell treatment, focusing on the areas of liver cell and pancreatic islet cell transplantation. We explore three key issues: what individual scientists themselves view as ethical sources of human embryos and stem cells; their perceptions of human embryos and stem cells; and how scientists perceive regulatory frameworks in stem cell research. We argue that these dimensions of laboratory practice are all examples of 'ethical boundary-work', which is becoming an integral part of the routine practice and performance of biomedical science. We add to the relatively few sociological studies which explore ethics in clinical settings and to an even smaller body of work that explores scientists' views on the ethical issues relating to their research.
From bench to bedside? Biomedical scientists' expectations of stem cell science as a future therapy for diabetes (Social Science & Medicine)
The movement of scientific research from the bench to the bedside is becoming an increasingly important aspect of modern 'biomedical societies'. There is, however, currently a dearth of social science research on the interaction between the laboratory and the clinic. The recent upsurge in global funding for stem cell research is largely premised on the promise of translating scientific understanding of stem cells into regenerative medicine. In this paper we report on the views of biomedical scientists based in the United Kingdom who are involved in human embryonic stem cell research in the field of diabetes. We explore their views on the prospects and problems of translational research in the field of stem cell science. We discuss two main themes: institutional influences on interactions between scientists and clinicians, and stem cell science itself as the major barrier to therapies. We frame our discussion within the emerging literature of the sociology of expectations.
Can stem cells cure Parkinson's Disease? Embryonic steps towards regenerative medicine of the brain (British Journal of Neuroscience Nursing)
Cell replacement therapy for Parkinson's Disease (PD) is currently based on the use of primary human foetal dopaminergic neurons. The use of aborted foetal tissue raises ethical issues, and it can never supply enough cells for this approach to be more than an experimental therapy. Clinical trials in some 350 patients, however, demonstrate that foetal cell transplants can give significant symptom relief in patients with advanced PD. What is required if cell replacement is to become a more routine therapy, therefore, is a new potentially unlimited source of dopaminergic neural cells to be discovered. Embryonic stem cells are seen by many neuroscientists and clinicians as the most promising way to bridge the gap between the laboratory and the clinic in the field of the regenerative medicine of the brain. In this paper I present an overview of the current 'state-of-the-science' of stem cells as a potential cure for PD.
Real science, biological bodies and stem cells: constructing images of beta cells in the biomedical science lab (Social Theory & Health)
In this paper we discuss physiological images in the biomedical sciences. We argue that the biological body is missing from much social research on the life sciences. Social theory has tended to focus on the exterior of the cultural body, whilst the interior of the biological body remains unexplored. Our purpose in this paper is to explore the material nature of the biological body, by blending together insights from the fields of human physiology and medical sociology. Our paper is a multidisciplinary collaboration between two social scientists and two biomedical scientists. Within biomedicine, in an attempt to revolutionise the treatment of diabetes, numerous laboratories are currently trying to transform stem cells into insulin secreting beta cells. Such research inevitably involves the production of pictures, as this is an essential element in the rhetorical reproduction of laboratory life. We discuss some of the types of images through which biomedical scientists aim to convince their colleagues that they have created functioning beta cells from (human) embryonic stem cells. We argue that some laboratory images are more constructed than others, hence we discuss a social constructionist continuum of representations of ‘functioning beta cells’ - from light microscopy, through immunocytochemistry, PCR, and transmission electron microscopy, to calcium microfluorimetry. We use these images in our critique of radical social constructionist / postmodern writings on science and we argue for a scientific realist view of biomedical science. We conclude with the realist claim that both biomedical scientists and social scientists are studying ‘the body multiple’ rather than ‘the multiple body’.
Workshops
Shaping expectations: linking the lab and the clinic through stem cell therapy? Invited multidisciplinary workshop, King's College London, 19 September 2006. More details here - pdf
Ethics, regulation, and the development of stem cell therapy? Invited multidisciplinary workshop, King's College London, 16 October 2006. More details here - pdf
Research Grants (that develop our stem cell research)
03/2007 – 03/2008 ESRC Stem Cell Initiative Senior Research Fellowship
Spaces of stem cell science: exploring processes of translational research
Prof Steven Wainwright (Principal Investigator, KCL) with Prof Clare Williams ( Mentor , KCL).
www.york.ac.uk/res/sci/fellowships/res350270001wainwright.htm
This research examines the processes of translational research in stem cell science. The project develops our earlier ESRC Stem Cell Initiative research: ‘Mapping stem cell research in action’, which focused on cell transplantation in the fields of diabetes and liver disease, and explored the social science themes of ethics, expectations, the body, and science and technology studies (STS). In contrast, this new research will focus on ‘disease in a dish’ approaches to stem cell translation (i.e. stem cells as tools for unravelling mechanisms of disease and for drug development) in the fields of neuroscience and diabetes. The new themes of risk, Bourdieu and geographies of science continue my innovative theoretical and methodological blending of STS and medical sociology. The project combines new ways of writing about our current data with additional research on some of the themes which have emerged during this qualitative work. My Fellowship develops a programme of research through six interrelated objectives which:
1. Explore views from the bench and the bedside on risk, stem cells, and cell transplantation.
2. Use Bourdieu’s concepts of field, habitus and different forms of capital, as a novel way of understanding stem cell science and translational research.
3. Examine the spaces of stem cell science, and develop a stream of research on the geographies of stem cell research and translational processes.
4. Investigate neuroscientists’ expectations of stem cell science, particularly the differing speeds of translation of embryonic, fetal and neural stem cells from the lab to the clinic.
5. Study models of stem cell science, particularly ‘cell transplantation’ and ‘disease in a dish’ as competing paradigms of translational research.
6. Compares and contrasts scientists’ views of stem cell science and translational research in California and the United Kingdom .
03/2007 - 04/2007 ESRC Stem Cell Initiative International Fellowship
Global dynamics of translational stem cell research: UK and US perspectives
Prof Clare Williams (Co-Principal Investigator, KCL) and Prof Steven Wainwright (Co-Principal Investigator, KCL), with Professor Christopher Scott (Bioethics, Stanford University , California , USA ).
This fellowship explores the links between 1. academia and industry; 2. regulation and ethics; and 3. science, social science and bioethics, in the two contrasting settings of London and San Francisco . We explore these three themes, at both Stanford and King’s College London, in three different forums: through multidisciplinary seminars, meetings and workshops. For example, for the UK part of the Fellowship we will arrange for Professor Scott to give a seminar at the London Regenerative Medicine Network, which is based at KCL; arrange a meeting with bioethicists and lawyers at the KCL Centre for Medical Law & Ethics; and organise a workshop with scientists and social scientists at KCL. Professor Scott is Executive Director of the Stanford Center for Biomedical Ethics Programme on Stem Cells in Society (California, USA), and a scientist who has engaged in developing relations between science and industry, and between science and society. His bestselling book, Stem Cells Now: From the Experiment That Shook the World to the New Politics of Life (Penguin 2006) exemplifies his commitment to engaging scientists, policy makers and ‘the public’. The research fellowship builds on our established mutual interests in the interactions between academic stem cell science, regulation, industry and multidisciplinary research in the contrasting settings of California and the UK .
07/2007-12/2009 Wellcome Trust Biomedical Ethics Programme
Ethical frameworks for embryo donation: views, values & practices of IVF/PGD staff
Prof Clare Williams (Principal Investigator, Medical Sociology, KCL), Prof Bobbie Farsides (Bioethics, Sussex), Dr Kathryn Ehrich (Medical Sociology, KCL), Dr Susan Avery (Clinical Embryology, Birmingham), ProfSarah Franklin (Sociology/Anthropology, LSE), Prof Peter Braude (Reproductive Medicine, KCL), Prof Lene Koch (Science Studies, Copenhagen), Prof Steven Wainwright (Medical Sociology, KCL)
This multidisciplinary research project addresses a key ethical area in genetics, namely, the views, values, practices and ethical frameworks drawn on by IVF/PGD staff and Units in relation to embryo/egg donation for research purposes, particularly human embryonic stem (hES) cell research. This research develops and links three ESRC funded stem cell projects (see above) with Dr Clare Williams’ Wellcome Trust funded research programme on ethics and new medical technologies (three projects), particularly her current ethnography of professional ethics in Pre-Implantation Genetic Diagnosis. This new research on ‘ethical frameworks for embryo donation’ aims to: investigate the ethical frameworks different Units draw on when deciding which embryos/eggs are potentially available for research; examine how these ethical frameworks emerge as Unit ‘policy’; explore the actual and potential ethical, clinical, social and legal dilemmas that staff encounter when working within these ethical frameworks; examine influences on, and interactions between different disciplines with their sometimes contradictory aims and backgrounds; evaluate how the research methods of observations, individual interviews and ethics discussion groups might help staff resolve dilemmas they confront when attempting to provide an ethically sound, clinical service. This research draws together expertise in medical sociology, ethics, anthropology, clinical embryology and medicine/biological science. The project contributes to innovative social science research which takes an ethnographic approach to explore the ways in which ethical problems are identified, classified, debated, and managed in the clinic and the lab. This study is important because the value of the material, as well as the ensuing research, is directly linked to the ethical ‘quality’ of donation procedures. The findings will be of central importance to professional, advisory and other bodies devising advice and policy in this rapidly developing area.
Seminar and conference presentations
1. Williams, C. & Wainwright, S.P. (2004) Social, ethical and organisational implications of innovative health technologies , Division of Reproductive Health Endocrinology & Development, Divisional Research Symposium, King's College London, University of London (25 June).
2. Williams, C. Wainwright, S.P. Cribb, A. Farsides, C. Heaton, N. & Michael, M. (2004) Mapping stem cell innovation in action , MRC/BBSRC/ESRC/EPSRC Stem Cell Initiative Preliminary Grantholders Workshop, University of Warwick (26-27 July).
3. Wainwright, S.P. Williams, C. Cribb, A. Farsides, C. & Michael, M. (2005) The body, stem cells and globalisation , Cambridge Body Research Group, 'Body and Society: Contemporary Themes and Future Prospects, A celebration of Professor Bryan Turner's contribution to the sociology of the body', King's College, University of Cambridge (19 January).
4. Wainwright, S.P. Williams, C. Cribb, A. Farsides, C. & Michael, M. (2005) Stem cells and the biological body: representations and the biomedical sciences , Institute for the Study of Genetics, Biorisks and Society, (IGBiS), University of Nottingham (17 March).
5. Wainwright, S.P. Williams, C. Cribb, A. Farsides, C. & Michael, M. (2005) Social science approaches to Lumelsky and after: the prospects for bioengineering pancreatic islets as a cure for diabetes . King's Islet Research Group, School of Biomedical Sciences, King's College London , University of London (11 April).
6. Wainwright, S.P. Williams, C. Cribb, A. Farsides, C. & Michael, M. (2005) The culture of culture: socially embedded ethics in the stem cell laboratory , ESRC CESAGen Second International Conference - Genomics and Society, 12th - 14th April 2005, The Royal Society, London.
7. Williams, C. & Wainwright, S.P. (2005) Mapping stem cell innovation in action: an ethnography of the interface between bench and bedside , Invited Workshop, 'Social Science Perspectives on Stem Cells', BIOS, LSE, London (16 June).
8. Wainwright, S.P. Williams, C. Cribb, A. Farsides, C. & Michael, M. (2005) Mapping stem cell innovation in action: an ethnography of the interface between bench and bedside, School of Nursing, King's College London, University of London (24 June).
9. Williams, C. & Wainwright, S.P. (2005) Mapping stem cell innovation in action: an ethnography of the interface between bench and bedside, Invited Workshop, 'ESRC Stem Cell Projects Workshop', SATSU, University of York , (21 July).
10. Williams, C. Wainwright, S.P. Cribb, A. Farsides, C. & Michael, M. (2005) Socially embedded ethics in two embryonic stem cell laboratories. BSA Medical Sociology Conference, University of York (15-17 September).
11. Wainwright, S.P. Williams, C. Cribb, A. Farsides, C. & Michael, M. (2005) Ethnographic reflections on the ethics of embryonic stem cells, Women's Health & Society Seminar Series, King's College London, University of London (5 October).
12. Wainwright, S.P. Williams, C. Cribb, A. Farsides, C. & Michael, M. (2005) Enacting images in the physiology laboratory: representations of the transformation of (human) embryonic stem cells into insulin producing beta cells. Society for Social Studies of Science (4S) Conference, Pasadena, California USA (20-22 October).
13. Williams, C. Wainwright, S.P. Cribb, A. Farsides, C. & Michael, M. (2005) Embryonic stem cells and ethics: an ethnography of scientists in two laboratories in the United Kingdom Society for Social Studies of Science (4S) Conference, Pasadena, California USA (20-22 October).
14. Wainwright, S.P. Williams, C. Cribb, A. Farsides, C. & Michael, M. (2005) Cultures of contestation: views from the molecular biology lab on embryonic steps toward stem cell therapy for diabetes, James Martin Institute for Science & Civilization, University of Oxford, (25 October).
15. Wainwright, S.P. Williams, C. Cribb, A. Farsides, C. & Michael, M. (2005) Contested cultures: ethnographic reflections on stem cell science as a cure for diabetes, SATSU (Science & Technologies Studies Unit), University of York (23 November).
16. Wainwright, S.P. Williams, C. Cribb, A. Farsides, C. & Michael, M. (2005) Contested cultures: views from the molecular biology lab on controversial science - embryonic steps toward stem cell therapy for diabetes? (Poster) BBSRC/MRC/ESRC/EPSRC Stem Cell Initiative grant holders workshop, Manchester (12-13 December).
17. Wainwright, S.P. Williams, C. (2005) New Medical technologies: ethnographies of translational research, Division of Health & Social Care Research, King's College London (16 December).
18. Williams, C. (2005) Scientists' perspectives on embryo ethics . ESRC Conference 'Embryo ethics in public practice', University of York , (20 December).
19. Wainwright, S.P. (2006) Selling qualitative research to quantitative researcher: notes on stem cells and the lab-clinic interface, 'When its more than just numbers: ethical issues in qualitative research', Centre for Medical Law & Ethics, King's College London (6 February).
20. Williams, C. & Wainwright, S.P. (2006) Envisaging the embryo in stem cell research: media reporting and scientists' views of the ethical debates , European Science Foundation Closed Workshop 'Stem Cell Cultures: Exploring The Social And Cultural Background To European Debates About Human Embryonic Stem Cells', Nottingham, (10-11 March).
21. Williams, C. (2006) Health care practitioners perceptions of ethical issues in pre-natal screening and testing. Lent Lecture, Centre for Medical Law & Ethics, King's College London, (16 March).
22. Williams, C. (2006) Pre-natal screening and testing: the clinical and ethical dimensions of the views of health care practitioners . 'Designing Human Life', Imperial College London , (30 March).
23. Wainwright, S.P. (2006) Stem cell science as a cure for diabetes? Sociological reflections on contested cultures. Centre for Diabetes Research, King's College Hospital , London , (6 April).
24. Wainwright, S.P. Williams, C. Cribb, A. Farsides, C. & Michael, M. (2006) Genomic & genetic discourses on human embryonic stem cells: an international ethnography of laboratory science, Third International Conference: CSG (NL) & CESAgen (UK) 'Genomics & Society: towards a socially robust science', Amsterdam, (20-21 April).
25. Michael, M. Wainwright, S.P. & Williams, C. (2006) Time, Politics & Science: Stem Cells as 'Phronesic Objects' , 'Shifting Politics Conference', Groningen, The Netherlands (21-22 April).
26. Wainwright, S.P. (2006) Embryonic stem cells: social science perspectives on the prospects and problems of regenerative medicine. ‘ DECIDE: The origins of stem cells' , Science Museum DANA Centre, London (5 May).
27. Wainwright, S.P. Williams, C. & Michael, M. (2006) Genetic discourses on embryonic stem cells: sociological reflections on laboratory science and stem cell therapy for diabetes Department of General Practice & Primary Care, School of Medicine, King's College London, University of London (24 May).
28. Wainwright, S.P. Williams, C. & Michael, M. (2006) Contested cultures: views from the beta cell lab on controversial science and ES cell therapies for diabetes. Poster, International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR), 4th Annual Meeting, Toronto , Canada (29 June-1 July).
29. Wainwright, S.P. Williams, C. & Michael, M. (2006) Spaces of stem cell science: expectations and the moral economies of scientific knowledge, EASST (European Association for the Study of Science and Technology) Conference, ‘Reviewing Humanness: Bodies, Technologies & Spaces' University of Lausanne , Switzerland (23-26 August).
30. Williams, C. Wainwright, S.P. & Ehrich, K. (2006) Boundary objects, bodies and humanness: ethnographic reflections on embryos, stem cells and pre-implantation genetic diagnosis, EASST (European Association for the Study of Science and Technology) Conference, ‘Reviewing Humanness: Bodies, Technologies & Spaces' University of Lausanne, Switzerland (23-26 August).
31. Michael, M. Wainwright, S.P. & Williams, C. (2006) Performativity, prudence and plasticity: phronesic objects and the micropolitics of stem cells, EASST (European Association for the Study of Science and Technology) Conference, ‘Reviewing Humanness: Bodies, Technologies & Spaces' University of Lausanne, Switzerland (23-26 August).
32. Wainwright, S.P. (2006) Can Bourdieu help us? Discussant for the session ‘The Geographies of Life Itself', RGS-IBG (Royal Geographical Society-Institute of British Geographers) Annual International Conference, The Royal Geographical Society, London (30 August – 1 September).
33. Wainwright, S.P. (2006) Moral economies of scientific knowledge: some thoughts on the spaces of stem cell science, RGS-IBG (Royal Geographical Society-Institute of British Geographers) Annual International Conference, The Royal Geographical Society, London (30 August - 1 September).
34. Wainwright, S.P. Williams, C. Persaud, S. & Jones, P. (2006) Real science, biological bodies and stem cells: reflections of a geographer on constructing images of beta cells in the biomedical science lab , ‘Conversations "across the divide” - The limits to knowledge: uncertainty and unrepresentability', RGS-IBG (Royal Geographical Society-Institute of British Geographers) Annual International Conference , The Royal Geographical Society, London (30 August – 1 September).
35 . Wainwright, S.P. Williams, C. Cribb, A. Farsides, C. & Michael, M. (2006) Bourdieu and the biopolitics of embryonic stem cell labs in the UK & USA: notes from the field on the field of stem cell research. Vital Politics II: Health, Medicine, and Bioeconomics into the 21 st Century, BIOS, London School of Economics, (5-7 September 2006).
36. Williams, C. Wainwright, S.P. & Ehrich, K. (2006) Embryos as boundary objects: the interface between stem cells and pre-implantation genetic diagnosis. Vital Politics II: Health, Medicine, and Bioeconomics into the 21 st Century, BIOS, London School of Economics, (5-7 September).
37. Wainwright, S.P. Williams, C. Michael, M. Cribb, A. & Farsides, C. (2006) Stem cells as a revolution in regenerative medicine? Shifting expectations and the quest to cure diabetes as an exemplar of boundary-work in action . BSA Medical Sociology Conference, Herriot Watt University, Edinburgh, Scotland, (14-16 September).
38. Williams, C. Wainwright, S.P. Michael, M. Cribb, A. & Farsides, C. (2006) Embryos as boundary objects: the interface between embryonic stem cells and pre-implantation genetic diagnosis, BSA Medical Sociology Conference, Herriot Watt University, Edinburgh, Scotland, (14-16 September).
39. Wainwright, S.P. Williams, C. Michael, M. Cribb, A. & Farsides, C. (2006) Stem cells, beta cells and islet transplantation: a view from social science, Mapping Stem Cell Innovation in Action Workshop 1: ‘Shaping expectations: linking the lab and the clinic through stem cell therapy?’ King’s College London (19 September).
40. Michael, M. Wainwright, S.P. Williams, C. Cribb, A. & Farsides, C. (2006) The sociology of expectations and translational research, Mapping Stem Cell Innovation in Action Workshop 1: ‘Shaping expectations: linking the lab and the clinic through stem cell therapy?’ King’s College London (19 September).
41. Wainwright, S.P. & Williams, C. (2006) Truth on one side of the mountain, falsehood on the other? Embryonic steps towards a revolution in regenerative stem cell medicine . Stanford Biomedical Ethics Center, Stanford University, California (September 26 )
42. Wainwright, S.P. & Williams, C. (2006) Social science research on stem cell science: a view from the UK, Science & Technology Studies Consortium (STSC), University of California Berkeley (UCB) (September 26).
43. Wainwright, S.P. & Williams, C. (2006) Stem Cells Now? Reflections on Bourdieu, Geographies of Science and the Moral Economies of Embryonic Stem Cell Medicine, ‘Ethical worlds of stem cell medicine’, invited conference, University of California Berkeley / University of California San Francisco (UCB/UCSF) (September 28-29).
44. Farsides, B. Cribb, A. Wainwright, S.P. Williams, C. & Michael, M. (2006) Ethics, research and stem cell therapy, Mapping Stem Cell Innovation in Action Workshop 2: ‘Ethics, regulation, and the development of stem cell therapy?’ King’s College London (16 October).
45. Wainwright, S.P. Williams, C. Cribb, A. Farsides, C. & Michael, M. (2006) Sociological reflections on the ethics of stem cells and cell transplantation, Mapping Stem Cell Innovation in Action Workshop 2: ‘Ethics, regulation, and the development of stem cell therapy?’ King’s College London (16 October).
46. Wainwright, S.P. & Williams, C. (2006) The Body, Biomedicine & Society: Reflections on High Tech Medicine , ‘ Health, Technology & Society Conference’, Royal Society, London (25 October )
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