Summary:

The field of health is a fertile one in which to explore the interactions and mutual determination of biological, environmental and societal processes. Molecular diagnoses are very often seen as an opportunity to free the way to taylor-made and ‘corrective’ interventions on the genes which allegedly are at the root of a series of undersirable, debilitating or lethal conditions or situations. The promise of gene therapy was one of the basic attractions for the considerable funding poured into the Human Genome Project. However, after the virtual conclusion of the project, the degree of complexity it now suggests greatly surpasses the reductionist approach which was previously adopted. From this a renewed debate ensued on what genes can or cannot do and how they do it, which appears to signal new pathways, in turn opening the way to certain promising breakthroughs, now within what is known as “regenerative” medicine. The current enthusiasm for stem cell research very often emerges in association with a new mysticity of “reprogenetics” as a successor to another line of DNA-linked research, carried out in the 1980s and 1990s, to which vast resources were attributed. In some respects, this enthusiasm obscured the need for understanding the complexity of the interaction between biology, the environment, society and politics in the reconstruction of knowledge of health and disease and in defining research priorities and health care.

Organized and coordinated by:
João Arriscado Nunes, Centre for Social Studies, jan@ces.uc.pt
João Ramalho Santos, Centre for Neuro-Sciences and  Cell Biology, jramalho@ci.uc.pt
Coimbra University

Sponsor:
Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation

Support:
British Council
Foundation for Science and Technology
Science Museum, Coimbra University