Scholars Award: Heredity under the Microscope: A History of Human Chromosomes

学者奖：显微镜下的遗传：人类染色体的历史

• 批准号: 1534814
• 负责人: Soraya de Chadarevian
• 金额: $ 29.82万
• 依托单位: University of California-Los Angeles
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2015-08-01 至 2021-09-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1534814&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Scholars; Award; Heredity; under; Microscope

General Audience SummaryThis project aims to understand what fueled research on human chromosomes, the cellular structures carrying genetic information, during the middle decades of the twentieth century, and to reconsider its supposed demise from the 1980s. In the postwar era, the microscope-based study of human chromosomes was a high-profile subject that promised to provide answers to urgent scientific, medical and political questions and attracted much funding and attention. Yet, the study of human chromosomes hardly plays a role in historical accounts of postwar genetics; molecular biology has taken much of the limelight. By following human chromosomes and the techniques and images that came packaged with them, it aims to reconstruct where human heredity mattered and genetic knowledge was embraced, debated, and rejected. The primary product of the research will be a book, accessible to wide readership in the history of science and technology, science studies and the life sciences. Historians will find a fresh perspective on an important chapter of twentieth century science. Biologists working in the field will gain a deeper understanding of the different strands of research that inform current genomic practices. The study will also be accessible to a more general readership, including science educators and policy makers, interested in looking beyond the story of the double helix to understand how heredity became an overriding concern in the late 20th and early 21st century. Technical SummaryThe focus on human chromosomes provides a fresh vantage point from which to investigate the postwar history of human, medical and molecular genetics. The study will provide a novel understanding of several key issues. The focus on chromosomes allows the investigation to move beyond the limits of a disciplinary history and to trace the many contexts in which chromosome techniques were taken up and developed including radio-biological research, cancer research, toxicology, gender testing, criminology, world-wide population studies and in the policy arena. The study aims to recover these multiple uses of the new technology and to reconstruct the expectations placed on the new genetic technology. The study will also provide an integrated account of the history of postwar genetics by considering the place of microscopical practices next to molecular approaches in the postwar quest to study and harness heredity. While molecular biologists have long predicted the demise of cytogenetics, these practices have not only survived and thrived, especially in the field of comparative evolutionary genomics and in the clinical and drug discovery context. In light of these various facets, the research will have an impact on archival collecting practices. It will be shown that to document the history of postwar genetics for future historians it is necessary to have an inclusive view of the kind of objects and documents that make up this history.

该项目旨在了解是什么推动了对人类染色体的研究，携带遗传信息的细胞结构，在20世纪世纪中期，并重新考虑其自20世纪80年代以来的消亡。在战后时期，基于显微镜的人类染色体研究是一个备受瞩目的课题，有望为迫切的科学，医学和政治问题提供答案，并吸引了大量资金和关注。然而，对人类染色体的研究在战后遗传学的历史记录中几乎没有发挥作用;分子生物学已经成为人们关注的焦点。通过跟踪人类染色体及其附带的技术和图像，它旨在重建人类遗传的重要性以及遗传知识被接受，辩论和拒绝的地方。这项研究的主要成果将是一本书，供广大读者阅读，内容涉及科学和技术史、科学研究和生命科学。历史学家将对二十世纪世纪科学的一个重要篇章找到新的视角。在该领域工作的生物学家将更深入地了解为当前基因组实践提供信息的不同研究领域。这项研究也将提供给更广泛的读者，包括科学教育工作者和政策制定者，他们有兴趣超越双螺旋的故事，了解遗传是如何在20世纪末和21世纪初成为压倒一切的问题的。对人类染色体的关注为研究战后人类、医学和分子遗传学的历史提供了一个新的Vantage位置。这项研究将对几个关键问题提供新的理解。对染色体的关注使调查超越了学科历史的限制，并追溯了染色体技术被采用和发展的许多背景，包括放射生物学研究，癌症研究，毒理学，性别测试，犯罪学，世界范围的人口研究和政策竞技场。该研究旨在恢复新技术的这些多重用途，并重建对新基因技术的期望。这项研究还将通过考虑在战后寻求研究和利用遗传的分子方法旁边的显微镜实践的位置，提供战后遗传学历史的综合说明。虽然分子生物学家长期以来一直预测细胞遗传学的消亡，但这些实践不仅存活下来，而且蓬勃发展，特别是在比较进化基因组学领域以及临床和药物发现方面。鉴于这些不同的方面，研究将对档案收集实践产生影响。它将表明，记录战后遗传学的历史，为未来的历史学家，有必要有一个包容性的观点的那种对象和文件，使这段历史。