Sara Shostak

The Emergence of Toxicogenomics A Case Study of Molecularization

This paper describes the efforts of scientists at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) and their allies in the National Toxicology Program to molecularize toxicology by fostering the emergence of a new discipline: toxicogenomics. I demonstrate that the molecularization of toxicology at the NIEHS began in a process of ‘co-construction’. However, the subsequent emergence of the discipline of toxicogenomics has required the deliberate development of communication across the myriad disciplines necessary to produce toxicogenomic knowledge; articulation of emergent forms, standards, and practices with extant ones; management of the tensions generated by grounding toxicogenomics in traditional toxicological standards and work practices even it transforms those standards and practices; and identification and stabilization of roles for toxicogenomic knowledge in markets and service sites, such as environmental health risk assessment and regulation. This paper describes the technological, institutional, and inter-sectoral strategies that scientists have pursued in order to meet these challenges. In so doing, this analysis offers a vista into both the means and meanings of molecularization.

The Politics of the Gene: Social Status and Beliefs about Genetics for Individual Outcomes

Social scientists have predicted that individuals who occupy socially privileged positions or who have conservative political orientations are most likely to endorse the idea that genes are the root cause of differences among individuals. Drawing on a nationally representative sample of the US population, this study examines belief in the importance of genes for understanding individual differences in a series of broad domains: physical illness, serious mental illness, intelligence, personality, and success in life. We also assess whether the belief that genetics are important for these outcomes is more common among those in relatively advantaged positions or among those who are more politically conservative. Finally, we consider whether such beliefs predict attitudes toward genetics-related social policies. Our analyses suggest that belief in the importance of genetics for individual differences may well have a substantial effect on attitudes toward genetics-related policies, independent of political orientation or other measures. Our study identifies high levels of endorsement for genes as causes of health and social outcomes. We describe a cultural schema in which outcomes that are “closer to the body” are more commonly attributed to genetics. Contrary to expectations, however, we find little evidence that it is more common for whites, the socioeconomically advantaged, or political conservatives to believe that genetics are important for health and social outcomes.

Sequencing and its consequences: path dependence and the relationships between genetics and medicalization.

Both advocacy for and critiques of the Human Genome Project assume a self‐sustaining relationship between genetics and medicalization. However, this assumption ignores the ways in which the meanings of genetic research are conditional on its position in sequences of events. Based on analyses of three conditions for which at least one putative gene or genetic marker has been identified, this article argues that critical junctures in the institutional stabilization of phenotypes and the mechanisms that sustain such classifications over time configure the practices and meanings of genetic research. Path dependence is critical to understanding the lack of consistent fit between genetics and medicalization.

Genetic testing in the epilepsies-developments and dilemmas.

In the past two decades, the number of genes recognized to have a role in the epilepsies has dramatically increased. The availability of testing for epilepsy-related genes is potentially helpful for clarification of the diagnosis and prognosis, selection of optimal treatments, and provision of information for family planning. For some patients, identification of a specific genetic cause of their epilepsy has important personal value, even in the absence of clear clinical utility. The availability of genetic testing also raises new issues that have only begun to be considered. These issues include the growing importance of educating physicians about when and how to test patients, the need to ensure that affected individuals and their families can make informed choices about testing and receive support after receiving the results, and the question of what the positive and negative consequences of genetic testing will be for affected individuals, their family members, and society.

Ethical, Legal, and Social Dimensions of Epilepsy Genetics

Summary:  Purpose: Emerging genetic information and the availability of genetic testing has the potential to increase understanding of the disease and improve clinical management of some types of epilepsy. However, genetic testing is also likely to raise significant ethical, legal, and social issues for people with epilepsy, their family members, and their health care providers. We review the genetic and social dimensions of epilepsy relevant to understanding the complex questions raised by epilepsy genetics.

Environmental justice and genomics: Acting on the futures of environmental health

Technoscientific innovations may create multiple possible futures, only some of which are produced and/or sustained. Increasingly, sociological studies of technoscience endeavour to render visible the processes through which specific futures are envisioned and enacted (Brown et al., 2000; van Lente and Rip, 1998). Such an intellectual quest demarcates a vast terrain, as evident in Adam’s admonition that scholars of technoscience must explain

Teaching Graduate and Undergraduate Research Methods A Multipronged Departmental Initiative

This article describes a departmental initiative designed to integrate the teaching of graduate and undergraduate sociology through research methodology and the completion of actual research projects. The goal was to develop a multilevel team approach within which faculty, graduate students, and undergraduates would view their work as part of a connected project. The authors describe the three central components of the multilevel approach: a newly required research seminar for graduate students, an approach to teaching research methods in a joint seminar of graduate and undergraduate students, and an approach to teaching undergraduate research methods that includes having graduate students model research techniques for undergraduates. The authors then assess each of these components based on course evaluations and additional data gathered from participants. The authors conclude with a series of suggestions about how this model might be expanded and developed further in their own and other institutional contexts.

Genetic testing preferences in families containing multiple individuals with epilepsy

To examine genetic testing preferences in families containing multiple individuals with epilepsy.

Genetic causal attribution of epilepsy and its implications for felt stigma.

Research in other disorders suggests that genetic causal attribution of epilepsy might be associated with increased stigma. We investigated this hypothesis in a unique sample of families containing multiple individuals with epilepsy.

Parents' interest in genetic testing of their offspring in multiplex epilepsy families.

To evaluate parents’ interest in genetic testing of their offspring in families containing multiple individuals with epilepsy.