PostDoctoral Research Fellowship

这项博士后研究和培训补助金质疑“量身定制的药物”的出现，因为医学专业人员、生物技术研究人员、药物规划战略家和普通公众都以不同的方式采用了针对特定人群的生物差异的理由。关于“种族”在科学中的地位以及它在社会、生物、遗传和流行病学上的有效性或无效性的持续困惑，将被探讨。以非裔美国人高血压和心力衰竭为例，这项博士后资助的研究部分将包括一项人种学的、多地点的研究，研究第一种被称为BiDil的种族标记药物的外观和理由。这种“非裔美国人药物”目前是在美国100多个临床地点进行的为期两年的医学试验的第一年，由总部位于马萨诸塞州贝德福德的NitroMed公司生产。依靠多地点实地调查的方法（Heath et al. 1999; Rapp 1999），我将在纽约地区的一个或多个试验地点进行参与者观察，以了解医生和患者如何理解“非裔美国人高血压”与“高加索人”高血压是不同的疾病。作为对药物基因组学至关重要的生物差异标记，参与观察和与研究snp（单核苷酸多态性）的遗传学家的访谈将补充实地工作的这一方面。关于表型特征是否可以科学地相信一个人的药物代谢酶的遗传结构的争论最近使种族在科学中的使用在新英格兰医学杂志（Exner et al. 2001; Yancy et al. 2001）中脱颖而出，其中许多研究bidil的人发表了重要论文，证明他们的全黑人研究，非裔美国人心力衰竭试验（Dries et al. 1999; Exner et al. 2001）。由于NEJM的争论，遗传学家在《自然遗传学》上发表了他们对种族作为遗传差异的替代标记的批评（编辑2001）。通过采访为药物基因组学目的而进行SNP图谱绘制的生物技术公司的发言人、NitroMed公司BiDil试验的科学顾问、心脏病专家、高血压专家、黑人心脏病专家协会（ABC）成员、患者和患者倡导团体成员，我将记录种族和其他标记（如SNP）的部署，因为它们都可能影响后基因组时代对差异、身份和健康的新社会理解。纽约大学人类学高级教授蕾娜·拉普（Rayna Rapp）将在纽约大学进行为期18个月的博士后研究与培训，伦敦大学戈德史密斯学院社会学教授尼古拉斯·罗斯（Nikolas Rose）将在伦敦大学进行为期6个月的博士后研究与培训，这既是及时的，也是有针对性的。药物基因组学领域刚刚兴起，而关于负责任地使用种族概念的问题——在生命科学和社会科学中都有选择性地受到抵制——需要更详细的跨学科研究。该项目将以医学人类学和社会学研究人员的工作为基础，这些研究人员对各种社会和生物差异标记（如种族和疾病基因）的交集感兴趣。它将进一步促进有关疾病、身份、技术和市场共同产生的科学社会研究的研究。

This post-doctoral research and training grant queries the emergence of "tailored medicine" as rationales of population-specific biological differences are varyingly taken up by professionals in the medical sciences, researchers in biotechnology, strategists in pharmaceutical planning and lay publics. The persistent confusion over the place of "race" in the sciences as well as its social, biological, genetic, and epidemiologicalvalidity, or invalidity, will be explored. Taking the example of African-American hypertension and heart failure, the research component of this postdoctoral grant will consist of an ethnographic, multi-sited study on the appearance of, and justification for, the first ethnically marked pharmaceutical drug called BiDil. This "African-American drug" is currently in its first year of a two-year medical trial at over 100 clinical sites in the U.S. and is produced by Bedford, MA based NitroMed, Inc. Relying on methods of multi-sited fieldwork (Heath et al. 1999; Rapp 1999), I will conduct participant observation at one or more trial sites in the New York area to learn how both doctors and patients understand "African-American hypertension" as a different disease than that of its "Caucasian" counterpart. This aspect of the fieldwork will be complemented by participant observation and interviews with geneticists researching SNPs (single nucleotide polymorphisms) as markers of biological difference crucial to pharmacogenomics. The controversy over whether or not phenotypic traits can scientifically belie one' genetic constitution regarding drug metabolizing enzymes has recently brought the usage of race in science to the fore in The New England Journal of Medicine (Exner et al. 2001; Yancy et al. 2001) where many of those working on BiDilhave published key papers justifying their all Black study, The African-American Heart Failure Trial (Dries et al. 1999; Exner et al. 2001). Geneticists publishing in Nature Genetics have upped their criticism of race as a surrogate marker for genetic difference due to the NEJM debates (Editorial 2001). By interviewing spokespeople for biotechnology companies working on SNP mapping for pharmacogenomics purposes,scientific advisors on NitroMed, Inc.'s BiDil trial, cardiologists, hypertension specialists, members of the Association of Black Cardiologists (ABC), patients, and patient advocate group members, I will chronicle the deployment of race and other markers (such as SNPs) as each potentially inflect new social understandings of difference, identity, and health in the post-genomic age. This Postdoctoral Research and Training Fellowship, to be carried out at New York University under the sponsorship of senior Professor of Anthropology Rayna Rapp for 18 months, and at the University of London, Goldsmith College with Professor of Sociology Nikolas Rose for 6 months, is both timely and pertinent. The field of pharmacogenomics is just emerging, while questions on the responsible use of the concept of race --selectively resisted in both the life and socialsciences--demand more detailed interdisciplinary scholarship. This project will build upon the work of researchers in medical anthropology and sociology interested in the intersection of various social and biological markers of difference, such as ethnicity and disease genes. It will furthermore contribute to research in the social studies of science concerned with the co-production of disease, identity, technology, and market.