TY - JOUR
T1 - How do scientists model humanness? A qualitative study of human organoids in biomedical research
AU - Hinterberger, Amy
AU - Bea, Sara
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was supported by a Wellcome Trust Investigator Award in the Social Science and Humanities. For this qualitative study we generated the following data between September 2020 to March 2022 through a combination of documentary analysis, online ethnography, and expert interviews. The initial phase of data collection sought to preliminarily map the field of human organoid research and focused on documentary analysis of bioscientific articles covering organoids, 3D tissue culture and stem cell biotechnologies published in English scientific journals since 2010. It was followed by a period that incorporated observational data from online ethnography of scientific workshops, webinars and conferences that featured organoid research - hosted by the International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR), Stem Cell Technologies, the European Cell Therapy and Organ Regeneration Section of European Society for Organ Transplantation (ESOT), and the MIT Centre for Multi-cellular Engineered Living Systems. Documentary analysis and online ethnographic observations provided the technical background and signalled the emergent issues around cell-based biotechnologies that were explored in-depth and contextualized with 25 semi-structured interviews with biomedical researchers working in the areas of stem cell science, developmental biology, and clinical research.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 The Authors
PY - 2023/3
Y1 - 2023/3
N2 - We investigate how changes in biotechnology are transforming the pursuit of human-specific models of disease and development. Our case study focuses on scientists who make human organoids. Organoids are stem cell-based three-dimensional multicellular living systems, made in labs, that mimic the function of human organs. Organoids create new opportunities for human health research, but we know little about how researchers understand the relationship between these model systems and the humans they are meant to represent. By analysing 25 interviews, complemented by observation and documentary research conducted in 2020–2022, we identify and discuss four themes that characterize how researcher's model humanness in organoids. For scientists, organoids are powerful tools to approximate the biology of human beings because they represent the closest thing to undertaking experiments on living humans, not previously possible. As laboratory tools, human organoids may replace the need for experimentation on animals, potentially contributing to the 3Rs of animal research (replacement, reduction, and refinement). Humanness is partly operationalized by modelling different human characteristics within organoids, such as male and female, different disease states, age, and other attributes. We find that human organoids are opening up previously closed spaces of experimentation and modelling in biomedicine. We argue that the humanness of organoid model systems are not a given but are enacted with and through a variety of scientific practices. These practices require critical attention from social scientists as the enactments of humanness being modelled in organoids have the potential to shape what and who counts as human in biomedical research.
AB - We investigate how changes in biotechnology are transforming the pursuit of human-specific models of disease and development. Our case study focuses on scientists who make human organoids. Organoids are stem cell-based three-dimensional multicellular living systems, made in labs, that mimic the function of human organs. Organoids create new opportunities for human health research, but we know little about how researchers understand the relationship between these model systems and the humans they are meant to represent. By analysing 25 interviews, complemented by observation and documentary research conducted in 2020–2022, we identify and discuss four themes that characterize how researcher's model humanness in organoids. For scientists, organoids are powerful tools to approximate the biology of human beings because they represent the closest thing to undertaking experiments on living humans, not previously possible. As laboratory tools, human organoids may replace the need for experimentation on animals, potentially contributing to the 3Rs of animal research (replacement, reduction, and refinement). Humanness is partly operationalized by modelling different human characteristics within organoids, such as male and female, different disease states, age, and other attributes. We find that human organoids are opening up previously closed spaces of experimentation and modelling in biomedicine. We argue that the humanness of organoid model systems are not a given but are enacted with and through a variety of scientific practices. These practices require critical attention from social scientists as the enactments of humanness being modelled in organoids have the potential to shape what and who counts as human in biomedical research.
KW - Biomedicine
KW - Biotechnology
KW - Ethics
KW - Model organism
KW - Organoids
KW - Stem cells
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85146458501&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.socscimed.2023.115676
DO - 10.1016/j.socscimed.2023.115676
M3 - Article
C2 - 36657211
AN - SCOPUS:85146458501
SN - 0277-9536
VL - 320
JO - Social Science & Medicine
JF - Social Science & Medicine
M1 - 115676
ER -
