Salomon's House: A Synthetic Biology Science Fiction Prototype

Description
Based upon the idea of a "science fiction prototype" as originally designed by Brian David Johnson, Salomon’s House is a science fiction novella, written to be as scientifically accurate as possible and to present a balanced account of the potential

Based upon the idea of a "science fiction prototype" as originally designed by Brian David Johnson, Salomon’s House is a science fiction novella, written to be as scientifically accurate as possible and to present a balanced account of the potential social consequences of genetic engineering. It aims to explore the answers to some core questions that have plagued scientists and philosophers alike while entertaining its readers with a punchy, character-driven narrative.

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Contributors
Date Created
2023-05
Resource Type

Additional Information

English
Series
  • Academic Year 2022-2023
Open Access
Peer-reviewed

The Failures, Successes, and Future of the Modern Biocontainment Paradigm

Description

The debate around genetic engineering has permeated society for decades. A crucial aspect of this debate is the containment of genetically engineered organisms. This project outlines the three types of biocontainment and the conclusions drawn about each in the form

The debate around genetic engineering has permeated society for decades. A crucial aspect of this debate is the containment of genetically engineered organisms. This project outlines the three types of biocontainment and the conclusions drawn about each in the form of policy briefs. These briefs utilize case studies to sketch an overview of the current biocontainment paradigm in the United States. In addition, there is a brief discussing the major conclusions drawn from the case studies, as well as a brief containing useful definitions.

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Contributors
Date Created
2023-05
Resource Type

Additional Information

English
Series
  • Academic Year 2022-2023
Open Access
Peer-reviewed

Placeless: An Ethnography of Biotechnology in the San Francisco Bay Area

Description
This dissertation investigates the relationship between the universal aspirationsof technology and the particularity of place, by way of close participant observation with biotechnology companies in the San Francisco Bay Area. Its central claim is that the aspiration to placelessness in

This dissertation investigates the relationship between the universal aspirationsof technology and the particularity of place, by way of close participant observation with biotechnology companies in the San Francisco Bay Area. Its central claim is that the aspiration to placelessness in the development of science and technology operates as material configurations, modes of subjectivation, and historical conditions particular to places. Following Foucault’s late work in ethics, I conduct a series of sustained investigations into the reflective modes of critique biotechnologists make in thinking of and being in the San Francisco Bay Area. I show the ways the aspiration to placelessness exists in place at four different vantage points: the organization, the city, the broader cultural history of the region, and the practices of self-cultivation undertaken by technologists. Within biotechnology organizations, biological work is digitized and automated only through an intensification of bespoke material infrastructures, physical labor, and tacit institutional knowledge. Biotechnology organizations have come into existence through a history of settler colonial erasure, industrial devastation, post-war industrial decay, and urban renewal in Bay Area industrial suburbs and neighborhoods. A nostalgic imagination of the broader San Francisco Bay Area and its history of counterculture become mobilized as an antidote to the felt lifelessness of these forms of urban renewal and technological order and incorporated back into engineering practice. Finally, the technologist themselves must aspire to placelessness, in ways critiqued by local landless people’s movements who offer an alternative ethic to place in their imperative to gentrifiers to “move home with your parents.” I conclude by reflecting on the ways interlocutors at each of these vantage points are actively exploring the creation of more enduring relationships to place in the face of the unintended but intensified forms of social suffering in zones of technological innovation.

Details

Contributors
Date Created
2022
Resource Type
Language
  • eng
Note
  • Partial requirement for: Ph.D., Arizona State University, 2022
  • Field of study: Human and Social Dimensions of Science and Technology

Additional Information

English
Extent
  • 194 pages
Open Access
Peer-reviewed

Advancing Methods to Monitor and Assess Personal Ultraviolet Radiation Exposure

Description
Ultraviolet (UV) radiation is the most well-known cause of skin cancer, and skin cancer is the most common type of cancer in the United States. People are exposed to UV rays when they engage in outdoor activities, particularly exercise, which

Ultraviolet (UV) radiation is the most well-known cause of skin cancer, and skin cancer is the most common type of cancer in the United States. People are exposed to UV rays when they engage in outdoor activities, particularly exercise, which is an important health behavior. Thus, researchers and the general public have shown increasing interest in measuring UV exposures during outdoor physical activity using wearable sensors. However, minimal research exists at the intersection of UV sensors, personal exposure, adaptive behavior due to exposures, and risk of skin damage. Three studies are presented in this dissertation: (1) a state-of-the-art review that synthesizes the current academic and grey literature surrounding personal UV sensing technologies; (2) the first study to investigate the effects of specific physical activity types, skin type, and solar angle on personal exposure in different outdoor environmental contexts; and (3) a study that develops recommendations for future UV-sensing wearables based on follow-up interviews with participants from the second study, who used a wrist-worn UV sensor while exercising outdoors. The first study provides recommendations for 13 commercially available sensors that are most suitable for various types of research or personal use. The review findings will help guide researchers in future studies assessing UV exposure with wearables during physical activity. The second study outlines the development of predictive models for individual-level UV exposure, which are also provided. These models recommend the inclusion of sky view factor, solar angle, activity type, urban environment type, and the directions traveled during physical activity. Finally, based on user feedback, the third study recommends that future UV-sensing wearables should be multi-functional watches where users can toggle between showing their UV exposure results in cumulative and countdown formats, which is intuitive and aesthetically pleasing to users.

Details

Contributors
Date Created
2021
Embargo Release Date
Resource Type
Language
  • eng
Note
  • Partial requirement for: Ph.D., Arizona State University, 2021
  • Field of study: Biological Design

Additional Information

English
Extent
  • 151 pages
Open Access
Peer-reviewed

Testing and Regulation of Genetically Engineered Biological Containment Techniques

Description
Industries and research utilizing genetically-engineered organisms are often subject to strict containment requirements such as physical isolation or specialized equipment to prevent an unintended escape. A relatively new field of research looks for ways to engineer intrinsic containment techniques- genetic

Industries and research utilizing genetically-engineered organisms are often subject to strict containment requirements such as physical isolation or specialized equipment to prevent an unintended escape. A relatively new field of research looks for ways to engineer intrinsic containment techniques- genetic safeguards that prevent an organism from surviving outside of specific conditions. As interest in this field has grown over the last few decades, researchers in molecular and synthetic biology have discovered many novel ways to accomplish this containment, but the current literature faces some ambiguity and overlap in the ways they describe various biocontainment methods. Additionally, the way publications report the robustness of the techniques they test is inconsistent, making it uncertain how regulators could assess the safety and efficacy of these methods if they are eventually to be used in practical, consumer applications. This project organizes and clarifies the descriptions of these techniques within an interactive flowchart, linking to definitions and references to publications on each within an Excel table. For each reference, variables such as the containment approach, testing methods, and results reported are compiled, to illustrate the varying degrees to which these techniques are tested.

Details

Contributors
Date Created
2022-05

Additional Information

English
Series
  • Academic Year 2021-2022
Open Access
Peer-reviewed

Mapping the Implications of AI and Machine Learning in the Healthcare Market

Description

Within the last decade, there has been a lot of hype surrounding the potential medical applications of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) technologies. During the same timespan, big tech companies such as Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, and Google have

Within the last decade, there has been a lot of hype surrounding the potential medical applications of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) technologies. During the same timespan, big tech companies such as Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, and Google have entered the healthcare market as developers of health-based AI and ML technologies. This project aims to create a comprehensive map of the existing health-AI market landscape for the standard biotech reader and to provide a critical commentary on the existing market structure.

Details

Contributors
Date Created
2021-05
Language
  • eng

Additional Information

English
Series
  • Academic Year 2020-2021
Extent
  • 30 pages

Benefits and Difficulties of Telegenetics for Genetic Counseling During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Description

Telehealth is the use of information and communications technology by healthcare professionals to provide care to patients. When this technology is being used specifically for genetic services, it is called telegenetics. Previous studies that examine the small-scale use of telegenetics

Telehealth is the use of information and communications technology by healthcare professionals to provide care to patients. When this technology is being used specifically for genetic services, it is called telegenetics. Previous studies that examine the small-scale use of telegenetics for the field of genetic counseling have shown that the technology may provide a way to address the problem of patient access to genetic counseling services, assuming its efficacy. Patients are satisfied with telegenetics, but genetic counselors hold more reservations. Because of this and the many regulatory barriers in its way, telegenetics was only slowly being adopted when the coronavirus was declared a pandemic in March 2020. The pandemic forced a switch to telegenetics at a scale never seen before. This study begins with a literature review to assess the situation of telegenetics before and during the pandemic. It then surveys practicing genetic counselors in Arizona in order to reveal what they think about telegenetics when it is the encouraged, and sometimes only, modality. Since the literature review revealed that genetic counselors, not patients, are the ones with concerns, it is important to hear their points of view. This study reveals that genetic counselors want telegenetics as an option but not as a replacement for in-person appointments. All respondents agreed that increased patient access is the main benefit of telegenetics. There are reported challenges that must be overcome, but genetic counselors in Arizona overwhelming believe that telegenetics use will be continued in the future.

Details

Contributors
Date Created
2021-05
Resource Type
Language
  • eng

Additional Information

English
Series
  • Academic Year 2020-2021
Extent
  • 32 pages

Account/ability: Disability and Agency in the Age of Biomedicalization

Description
Over the last half century, global healthcare practices have increasingly relied on technological interventions for the detection, prevention, and treatment of disability and disease. As these technologies become routinized and normalized into medicine, the social and political dimensions require substantial

Over the last half century, global healthcare practices have increasingly relied on technological interventions for the detection, prevention, and treatment of disability and disease. As these technologies become routinized and normalized into medicine, the social and political dimensions require substantial consideration. Such consideration is particularly critical in the context of ableism, in which bodily and cognitive differences such as disabilities are perceived as deviance and demand intervention. Further, neoliberalism, with its overwhelming tendency to privatize and individualize, creates conditions under which social systems abdicate responsibility for social issues such as ableism, shifting accountability onto individuals to prevent or mitigate difference through individualized means.

It is in this context that this dissertation, informed by critical disability studies and feminist science and technology studies, examines the understanding and enactment of disability and responsibility in relation to biomedical technologies. I draw from qualitative empirical data from three distinct case studies, each focused on a different biomedical technology: prenatal genetic screening and diagnosis, deep brain stimulation, and do-it-yourself artificial pancreas systems. Analyzing semi-structured interviews and primary documents through an inductive framework that takes up elements of Grounded Theory and hermeneutic phenomenology, this research demonstrates a series of tensions. As disability becomes increasingly associated with discrete biological characteristics and medical professionals claim a growing authority over disabled bodyminds, users of these technologies are caught in a double bind of personal responsibility and epistemic invalidation. Technologies, however, do not occupy either exclusively oppressive or liberatory roles. Rather, they are used with full acknowledgement of their role in perpetuating medical authority and neoliberal paradigms as well as their individual benefit. Experiential and embodied knowledge, particular when in tension with clinical knowledge, is invalidated as a transgression of expert authority. To reject these invalidations, communities cohering around subaltern knowledges emerge in resistance to the mismatched priorities and expectations of medical authority, creating space for alternative disabled imaginaries.

Details

Contributors
Date Created
2020
Resource Type
Language
  • eng
Note
  • Doctoral Dissertation Human and Social Dimensions of Science and Technology 2020

Additional Information

English
Extent
  • 374 pages
Open Access
Peer-reviewed

Understanding the Changes in the Regulation of Homeopathic Products in the United States and the Possible Impacts of These Changes

Description
Homeopathy is a brand of alternative medicine that has enjoyed a unique form of regulation for many years. This work aims to understand the regulation of homeopathic drugs in the United States by performing a literature review focused on three

Homeopathy is a brand of alternative medicine that has enjoyed a unique form of regulation for many years. This work aims to understand the regulation of homeopathic drugs in the United States by performing a literature review focused on three fronts: (i) homeopathy (theory, history in the United States and criticisms), (ii) U.S Food and Drug Administration (history and relationship to homeopathy), and (iii) interpretation of the law through reading guidance documents and the Code of Federal Regulations.
In 2015, the FDA began a process to reevaluate and update the regulations surrounding homeopathic products to better fit their present risk-based model. Past regulations were set in 1938; and as the world evolved, these have been found to set inadequate standards. By reviewing the agency’s guidance drafts and core regulatory documents, we come to understand that these changes are motivated by a desire for homeopathic remedies to follow high standards that apply to other products for the benefit of the U.S. consumers. FDA has made significant advances by proposing new Guidances on homeopathic products, listening to homeopathic community and consumers, and withdrawing the Compliance Policy Guide 400.400 issued in 1988.
We recommend for homeopathic manufacturers and practitioners to see the FDA as an ally and cooperate fully with the proposed changes for the regulation the agency gives out. Doing so will give the homeopathic community the best chance at continuing to sell their products and reach their consumers in the United States. In the same token, the FDA should do their best to involve homeopathic professionals in some way in this regulatory process, to encourage participation and compliance by the broader homeopathic community. Doing so ensures a climate of teamwork among different facets of the medical community in the United States.

Details

Contributors
Date Created
2020-05
Resource Type
Language
  • eng

Additional Information

English
Series
  • Academic Year 2019-2020
Extent
  • 40 pages

New Developments in Human Embryo Research: Reassessing the 14-day Guideline in the US

Description
In this paper, I aim to assess the ethical and policy issues at the forefront of developmental biology, mainly, the 14-day guideline dictating human embryo research. Ever since the invention of in vitro fertilization in the 1970s, the research landscape

In this paper, I aim to assess the ethical and policy issues at the forefront of developmental biology, mainly, the 14-day guideline dictating human embryo research. Ever since the invention of in vitro fertilization in the 1970s, the research landscape of human embryo research has been well explored. Now, there are new embryonic technologies and human embryonic stem cell based models that many believe do not fit into current guidelines. This paper analyzes four of these new technologies-- stem cell derived gametes, embryoids, 3D printed embryos and synthetic embryos-- in order to explore the impetus for reopening the debate on the 14-day guideline. The paper then explores current research and research projects while comparing and contrasting science as well as the potential for moral status and how that impacts regulation. Current United States policies and regulations as well as current professional society guidelines are broken down to fully grasp the political landscape surrounding human embryo research. Notably, current policies include the complete lack of a federal definition of an embryo as well as the Dickey-Wicker Amendment which restrict funding for human embryo research. It is thus advised that these, along with the 14 day guideline, are updated in order to encapsulate the early human developmental research landscape and promote research. This paper ends with an in depth policy recommendation including (but not limited to) bill language, suggested definitions and potential strategies.

Details

Contributors
Date Created
2020-05
Resource Type
Language
  • eng

Additional Information

English
Series
  • Academic Year 2019-2020
Extent
  • 52 pages