Doctoral Dissertation Research: Degeneration in Miniature: History of Cell Death and Aging Research in the Twentieth Century

前言这篇博士论文改进基金支持细胞退变研究的历史。本文主要研究了20世纪30年代至90年代的四个历史事件。前三集大部分是以草稿的形式写成的。这笔赠款将用于第四个历史插曲的研究，该插曲记录了H.罗伯特·霍维茨在20世纪70年代末至90年代初对线虫细胞死亡的研究。霍维茨是一名分子生物学家，他与另外两人分享了2002年诺贝尔生理学或医学奖。目前的提案主要要求提供资金用于档案访问和采访，以表征20世纪90年代初的第四个历史事件，当时霍维茨将细胞死亡描述为由基因表达网络引起的特定细胞分化状态。这一进展为未来通过研究模式生物优雅线虫研究细胞死亡、衰老和癌症的基因组方法打开了大门。智力价值这项拨款支持的具体研究，以及涵盖的论文研究将有助于在这些研究计划和更广泛的生物医学关注的背景下，提供对细胞退化的不同含义的出现的分析说明，如作为健康的保护者、发展的雕塑家和寿命的限制。这项研究将有助于更深入地理解生物医学研究的复杂历史，包括对科学实践的洞察，以及与更广泛的历史背景和后果的联系。这项研究还将有助于科学史和科学哲学中关于新生物材料的作用、研究风格和在生物学现代发展中的优先事项的科学研究，特别是随着变化的实验系统和这些系统所体现的细胞退化概念之间的复杂相互作用。博德影响科学史项目，这些项目将当前关于特定主题的知识和研究计划背景化和问题化，在这种情况下，细胞退化，是该领域(细胞生物学)和相关领域(如分子生物学、生理学、癌症研究和衰老研究)的科学家非常感兴趣的。此外，该项目的成果将通过在线胚胎学百科全书--胚胎项目，通过海洋生物实验室资料库关于衰老生物学历史的在线虚拟展览，以及通过化学遗产基金会获奖播客--蒸馏--向公众传播。

IntroductionThis doctoral dissertation improvement grant supports an investigation in the history of cell degeneration research. The dissertation focuses on four historical episodes from the 1930s to 1990s. The first three episodes are largely written in draft form. This grant will support research on the fourth historical episode documenting H. Robert Horvitz's study of cell death in the nematode C. elegans from the late 1970s to the early 1990s. Horvitz, a molecular biologist, shared the 2002 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with two others. This current proposal requests funding mostly for archival visits and interviews to characterize the fourth historical episode through the early 1990s when Horvitz represented cell death as a specific cellular state of differentiation caused by a network of gene expressions. This development opened the door for future genomic approaches to cell death, aging as well as cancer research through studying the model organism C. elegans.Intellectual Merits The specific study supported by this grant and the encompassing dissertation research will serve to provide an analytical account of the emergence of diverse meanings of cell degeneration, such as being a protector of health, a sculptor for development, and a limitation of lifespan, in the contexts of these research programs and broader biomedical concerns. The study will contribute to deeper understandings of the complex history of biomedical research including insights about scientific practice and connections with broader historical backdrops and consequences. The study will also contribute to discussions in history and philosophy of science and science studies on the roles of new biological material, research styles, and priorities in the modern development of biology, especially with the intricate interplay between changing experimental systems and concepts of cell degeneration these systems embodied.Broader Impacts History of science projects that contextualize and problematize current knowledge and research programs on a particular topic, in this case cell degeneration, are of substantial interest to scientists in the field (cell biology) and related fields (such as molecular biology, physiology, cancer research, and research on aging). In addition, the results of this project are to be communicated to the public through the online encyclopedia of embryology, the Embryo Project, through an online virtual exhibition about history of biology of aging at the Marine Biological Laboratory Repository, and through a prize-winning podcast by Chemical Heritage Foundation, Distillations.