By Dr Miguel Garcia-Sanchez is a Chancellor’s Fellow in the Department of Science, Technology and Innovation Studies of the University of Edinburgh, and was part of the 2014 cohort of Crucibilists.
His research focuses on the history of agricultural biotechnology and the cloning of Dolly the sheep, and the development of concerted mapping and sequencing initiatives, with special attention to the science, politics and socio-economic expectations behind the human and other large-scale genome projects which proliferated in the 1980s and 90s. A paperback edition of his book Biology, Computing and the History of Molecular Sequencing: From Proteins to DNA was recently published by Palgrave-Macmillan. He previously worked as a journalist and is interested in science communication and public engagement.
Current research projects
1) Historicising Dolly: An Edinburgh-centred case study of the emergence of animal biotechnology. UK Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC). £98,000.
2) Historical cartographies of genomics at the fall of the 20th century. Chancellor’s Fellowship, University of Edinburgh.
Research interests
1) Interactions between biomedicine and computing / biology and agriculture.
2) The organisation of large-scale biomedical initiatives, especially genomic projects.
3) Changing configurations of pure and applied research in biotechnological enterprises.
4) Social and historical dimensions in the formation of biomedical expectations. Role of narratives and biographical accounts in those processes.
5) Interdisciplinary connections between history of science and contemporary-oriented science studies (anthropological, sociological, economic and policy perspectives).
Further information can be found on Miguel’s webpage at the University of Edinburgh.