Doctoral Dissertation Research: Anthropological Analysis of Counter-current Techno-scientific Innovation and Scientific Authority

拥有最多的资金和最新的设备就能促进科学创新吗？成功的低成本研究是否可行？它是如何产生的？它又是如何获得科学权威的？在该奖项支持的研究中，研究人员将解决这些重要问题。他们将通过一项人种学调查来研究一种治疗肺癌的新药是如何从通常的高成本科技创新中心开发出来的。这项研究将训练一名美国研究生掌握数据收集的科学方法。其研究结果将有助于扩大药物创新的选择，这对于保护和促进健康人口仍然至关重要。这项研究将由加州大学旧金山分校医学人类学博士生内奥米·舍恩菲尔德（Naomi Schoenfeld）进行，他的导师是伊恩·惠特马什博士。舍恩菲尔德将重点研究两个地点。第一个是古巴的一个研究实验室，它开发了一个独特的低成本药物创新系统，使用的模式不同于美国等主要研发中心的模式。第二个是美国的一个主要癌症中心，古巴实验室开发的一种癌症疫苗正在那里进行临床试验。研究人员将在研究机构、诊所、行政办公室、家庭和会议活动的两个地点收集数据。她将使用一系列人类学研究方法，包括参与观察；面试;科学期刊，法规和法律文件，以及互联网，印刷和电视媒体的文本分析。对这些数据的分析将解决两个首要的研究问题：(1)科技创新的地方条件如何影响进入全球流通？(2)一种新药从边缘空间向被授权为研发中心的地点逆流而行，会产生什么样的科学权威关系？这项研究的结果将对如何开发和支持最具成本效益的科学创新条件产生新的见解。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Is scientific innovation always improved by having the most money and latest equipment? Is successful lower-cost research feasible, how does it come about, and how does it gain scientific authority? In the research supported by this award, the researchers will address these important questions. They will do so through an ethnographic investigation of how a new drug for treatment of lung cancer has been developed away from the usual, high-cost centers of techno-scientific innovation. The research will train an American graduate student in scientific methods of data collection. Its findings will help to expand the options for pharmaceutical innovation, which remains essential for protecting and promoting a healthy population. The research will be carried out by Naomi Schoenfeld, a University of California, San Francisco, medical anthropology doctoral student, who is supervised by Dr. Ian Whitmarsh. Schoenfeld will focus on two sites for the research. The first is a research laboratory in Cuba, which has developed a unique system of lower-cost pharmaceutical innovation using a model different from that of major research and development centers, such as those in the United States. The second is a major American cancer center where a cancer vaccine developed by the Cuban laboratory is being tested in clinical trials. The researcher will collect data at both sites in research institutes, clinics, administrative offices, homes, and conference events. She will use a range of anthropological research methods including participant observation; interviews; textual analysis of scientific journals, regulatory and legal documents, and internet, print, and television media. Analysis of these data will address two overarching research questions: (1) How do local conditions of scientific innovation influence entry into global circulation? (2) What relations of scientific authority are generated by the counter-current movement of a new drug from marginalized spaces toward sites authorized as centers of research and development? Results of this study will generate new insights into how to develop and support the most cost-effective conditions for scientific innovation.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.