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March 25, 2009
Biology Library Notes: Lecture announcement "Open Source Biology” (forward)
Information in Society Spring 2009 Speaker Series
"Open Source Biology”: Delivering redistributive justice for a creative biological commons?
Bronwyn Parry
Queen Mary University of London
Tuesday April 7, 2009
Lunch discussion: LISB 341, 12-1 pm
Office hour: LISB 341, 1:30-2:30 pm
Lecture: LISB 126, 3-4:30 pm
LISB is located at 501 E. Daniel, Champaign
Lecture abstract:
Biological information, whether rendered in actual or virtual forms (as embodied DNA or as databased sequences) can be understood not only as a foundational resource but also as an ‘enabling technology’ that provides the basis of many prospective biotechnological inventions. Drawing on the principles of ‘open-source’ access pioneered in other realms of the digital informational economy, recent global initiatives have attempted to support the generation of a creative biological commons by realizing the concept of ‘open source biology’. Focusing on the distinction between DNA as ‘a tool of innovation’ and an ‘end-product’ these initiatives are designed to make widely available in the scientific community, bio-informational technologies and sequences that would otherwise be the subject of restrictive intellectual property rights regimes. Building on her earlier work on the political economy of the collection, use and regulation of bioinformation (Parry, 2004, 2008, this presentation turns to an analysis of the desirability and viability of this uniquely informational mechanism for delivering redistributive justice to the brave new world of 21st century biotechnology.
Speaker biography:
Bronwyn Parry is an economic and cultural geographer whose primary interests lie in investigating the way human-environment relations are being re-cast by technological, economic and regulatory changes. Her special interests include the rise and operation of the life sciences industry, informationalism, the commodification of life forms, posthumanism, bioethics and systems for knowing, disciplining and governing nature. Her book Trading the Genome was published to wide acclaim by Columbia University Press in 2004. She is currently completing a large Wellcome Trust funded project that investigates how human body parts and derivatives are understood and used as occasional commodities within the contemporary life sciences industry. She has published widely on the ethical social and legal implications of developments in the life sciences, and is a member of the UK’s Nuffield Council on Bioethics where she has undertaken research into the ethical implications of the forensic use of bio-information and the recent crisis in public health in the UK. She has also undertaken comparative work on the role of international regulatory regimes and indigenous knowledge systems in resource management and use in a consultative capacity for both the UN and the UK government.
Before her lecture, please join Dr. Parry for a lunch discussion from 12-1 pm. Contact Linda Smith (lcsmith@illinois.edu) if you have questions or to let her know you will attend lunch. Lunch will be provided for the first 10 participants. Dr. Parry will also be available to meet during an office hour from 1:30-2:30 pm. The lecture will be recorded and linked from the GSLIS Guest Lectures pages at http://www.lis.uiuc.edu/news/lectures.html
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Posted by mmalliso at March 25, 2009 1:55 PM