Transgene

TRANSGENE

Medical Translation in the History of Modern Genomics

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About

Medical Translation in the History of Modern Genomics (TRANSGENE) was a research project that explored the development of genomic science across three different species: the baker and brewer’s yeast (S. cerevisiae), the pig (Sus scrofa) and Homo sapiens. Supported by the European Research Council, it mapped different ways of organising the practices of DNA sequencing over time. When we think about genomic science, the success story of the Human Genome Project comes most readily to mind, along with the image of large-scale genome centres producing DNA sequences on an industrial scale. Yet the history of genomics as a field reveals that there were other smaller-scale ways of conducting DNA sequencing and, crucially, connecting the resulting information to medical and agricultural goals.

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01/08/2023

TRANSGENE project concludes with two final publications

March 2022 witnessed the end of the European Research Council grant that has funded the activity of TRANSGENE over the last five and a half years. The main task of the team during the last phase of the project was finalising two publications that reflect the overall results of our investigation: a special issue in the journal Historical Studies in the Natural Sciences and a research monograph in the series Medicine and Biomedical Sciences in Modern History of Palgrave Macmillan.
24/08/2022

Can data be investigated across domains?

A question that has persistently been in our heads while developing the TRANSGENE project is whether the conclusions that we draw for genomic databases are applicable to other forms of big data. With this in mind, towards the end of the project we organised an international workshop to address potential synergies and incommensurabilies in the study of data produced in different domains.

Our events

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20 November 2021
15:00 - 16:00

History of Science Society (HSS) Annual Meeting

Co-organisation of the panel "Forgotten Genealogies: Medical Genetics and the Emergence of Human Genomics" and talk by Miguel Garcia-Sancho: "Sequencing, Bibliometrics and History: A From Below Perspective on the Emergence of Human Genomics"
15 November 2021
15:30 - 16:30

STIS seminar presentation

On Monday 15th November, Miguel García-Sancho and James Lowe will present their work from the TRANSGENE project at the regular Science, Technology and Innovation Studies seminar series. Their presentation, 'Differentiating and historicising genomics: the value of mixed-methods and multi-species research', will explore the mixed-methods approach they have used throughout the project, and a selection of fruits from it.
08 October 2021
13:00 - 16:10

Society for Social Studies of Science (4S) annual meeting

James Lowe and Miguel Garcia-Sancho's contribution "Species, communities and the meaning of the genome" was selected for the open panel "Data-Based Biomedicine: Legacies, Frictions, Ontologies," organised by Luca Chiapperino, Nils Graber, and Francesco Panese from the University of Lausanne.
14 - 16 September 2021
13:00 - 16:30

Workshop "Trajectories of big data platforms: a multi-disciplinary and trans-domain approach"

We organised this international event as part of the conclusions of our project. James Lowe delivered the presentation 'Making sequence data genomic: species, communities and forms of organisation'. Miguel Garcia-Sancho introduced the workshop and made a final commentary on the proceedings. Jarmo de Vries contributed to chairing and took the lead in logistics and organisation.