Abstract to Artefacts meeting, The Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C., 6-8 November, 2005
Thomas Söderqvist (Medical Museion, University of Copenhagen)
“To give to global genome a local habitation and a name: displaying the GeneChip®”
The introduction of Affymetrix GeneChip® on the market in 1994-1996 has boosted the expectations of the biomedical research community and the pharmaceutical industry to gene array technology as a major diagnostic tool for individualized drug treatment. Gene array technology epitomises two major trends in the history of recent biomedical science and biotechnology: first, the convergence of digitalisation and molecularisation; and second, the drive towards individualised therapy. The GeneChip® has already achived iconic status as a symbol for the alleged transition to postgenomics, which makes it a promising artefact for display in a public understanding of medicine context. In this presentation, I will discuss the potential of the GeneChip® to become a focal point for an exploration of the history and present state of the global biomedical system in terms of ‘biopower’ versus ‘biopolitical production’.
