The Post-Genomic Era Has Already Happened

Biopolicy, Volume 3 , Paper 1 (PY00001) September 5th 2000
Online Journal - URL: http://www.bioline.org.br/py
The Post-Genomic Era Has Already Happened

Eugene Thacker
Program in Comparative Literature & Cultural Studies Rutgers University [maldoror@eden.rutgers.edu]

Code number: PY00001

Received on August 15th, 2000
Accepted on September 2nd 2000
Published on September 15th 2000

SUMMARY:

This paper provides a critical analysis of contemporary molecular biotechnology, focusing on the fields of genomics and bioinformatics. In doing so, it raises questions concerning the ways in which computerization, economics, and race/ethnicity affect and are affected by current research.

Beginning with two key events in the biotechnology industry - the announcement of the completion of the sequencing of the human genome, and the first total annotation of human genome data - this essay discusses the intersecting developments in both biotechnology research, as well as "infotech" or information technology research. It goes on to highlight critically several of the scientific assumptions which still inform much of contemporary biotechnology research, which in turn lead to distinct historical phases of molecular biotechnology. Each of these historical phases is characterized by some relationship between the technical concept of "information" and the scientific concept of a molecular genetic code.

With this background, the paper then goes on to consider, on a theoretical level, some primary policy issues, including genetic privacy, human adult cloning, and research of human embryonic stem cells. The essay ends with a consideration of the ways in which "genetic difference" and polymorphisms (types of alterations in a species-defined genome) relate to our cultural conceptions of race and ethnicity.

Key words: biotechnology, bioinformatics, genomics, human genome project, post-genomics, biopolitics, biopolicy

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