SOCIOLOGIES OF SYNTHETIC BIOLOGY PROGRAMME Dr Susan Molyneux-Hodgson, University of Sheffield, UK OVERVIEW • Sociological analysis of the development and implications of synthetic biology began in 2007. • An ongoing programme of work includes a wide range of activities (summer projects, PhDs. & research projects) • Synbio confronts social researchers with socio-technical issues that are multi-layered and multi-disciplinary • The need for theoretically-informed, empirical sociological research is pressing. SUMMARY OF FUNDED PROJECTS Microbial Applications for Tissue Engineering (2008-2011) A Network in Synthetic Biology (£135,000 BBSRC) Deploying Synthetic Biology for the Water Industry (2009- 2011) (£200,000 EPSRC) Synthesising communities in Europe (2012–15) part of the cross-department Synthetic Biology for Human Health programme (£250,000 University of Sheffield) The meanings and implications of ‘translation' in Synthetic Biology (2012–15) part of the Rethinking the social production, locus and impact of biosciences project (£175,000 ESRC) (De)signing Synthetic Biologists (2009-13) part of the Engaging Young People in Science programme (£180,000 White Rose Universities Consortium & National Science Learning Centre) Crossing Biological Membranes-Net (2014-2019) Developing SB and other approaches to industrial biotechnology (£540,000 BBSRC) THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES Existing frameworks that are used in our research include:- • Actor Network Theory – recognising the human and non- human in accomplishing action and generating knowledge • Epistemic Communities – describing ways of knowing and the scientific practices needed to achieve goals • Co-production – taking science and state; local and global; persons and fields, as mutually constitutive RESEARCH APPROACH We aim to:- • advance sociological understanding of the development of emerging scientific fields and their attendant implications • impact on techno-scientific approaches to the field • create a community of researchers – regardless of disciplinary background – capable of engaging with future research agendas relating science in society. We do this by:- • Using close collaborative relations with scientists & engineers to understand, explain and intervene across a range of topics • Analysing data that includes:- ethnographic studies of laboratories and other field sites; interviews with policy actors, scientists and engineers; discourses of official literature and of media; studies with various publics. • Engaging in joint activity across disciplines e.g. co- supervision of technical and social science doctoral students; sociologists teaching on engineering programmes; iGEM participation; employing scientists on sociology projects; conference buddy scheme; joint writing, bidding & workshops. HIGHLIGHTS Detailed findings are available in publications. Insights include understanding how:- Synthetic biology exemplifies the development of a potentially new form of knowledge production, one that preferences the commercial aspects of field development and which we have labelled econoscience Stabilisation of the field is not guaranteed, even as funding and infrastructure to support it grows Biological complexity and (lack of) reproducibility are used to justify more basic research and explain a lack of venture capital & translation Barriers to innovation are performed by stakeholders in the process Radical technical solutions to social problems cannot intervene easily within existing sets of socio-technical relations The mathematisation of biology has epistemological consequences Databases act as obligatory passage points yet remain localised facilities Community making is an interplay of movements (the orientation and enrolment of people, stories, disciplines & policies) and of stickiness (the objects & glues that begin to bind the various constitutive elements of community) Community making devices (e.g. conferences and events, journals, success stories etc.) are central to creation of a sense of the global collective & form a central identity around which new members can be recruited & orient SELECTED PUBLICATIONS • Meyer & Molyneux-Hodgson (2014) Placing a new science: exploring spatial and temporal configurations of synthetic biology. In Merz & Sormani (eds.) Sociology of the Sciences Yearbook. Dortrecht: Springer • Molyneux-Hodgson & Balmer (2014) Synthetic biology, water industry and the performance of an innovation barrier. Science and Public Policy 41 (4): 507-519 • Bulpin & Molyneux-Hodgson (2013) The disciplining of scientific communities. Interdisciplinary Science Reviews. 38(2): 91 – 105 • Balmer & Molyneux-Hodgson (2013) Bacterial Cultures: ontologies of bacteria and engineering expertise at the nexus of synthetic biology & water services. Engineering Studies 5 (1): 59-73 • Meyer & Molyneux-Hodgson (2010) ‘Communautés épistémiques’: une notion utile pour théoriser les collectifs en sciences. Terrains et Travaux 18: 141 - 154 • Molyneux-Hodgson and Meyer (2009). Tales of emergence: synthetic biology as a scientific community in the making. BioSocieties , vol. 4, no. 2/3: 129-145 CONTACT:- Dr Susan Molyneux-Hodgson (PI): [email protected] Kate Bulpin (PhD student, Building scientists & communities): [email protected] Rob Meckin (PhD student, Meanings of translation): [email protected] Celso Gomes (PhD student, Making biofuels and big science): [email protected] Andrew Balmer (collaborator, SB and water industry): [email protected] Morgan Meyer (collaborator, emergence in France): [email protected]