The Recombinant University: Genetic Engineering and the Emergence of Stanford Biotechnology (Synthesis)

Doogab Yi

ISBN 10: 022614383X / ISBN 13: 9780226143835

Published by University Of Chicago Press, 2015

About this Item

The advent of recombinant DNA technology in the 1970s was a key moment in the history of both biotechnology and the commercialization of academic research. This book brings to life the hybrid origin story of biotechnology and ways the academic culture of science has changed in tandem with the early commercialization of recombinant DNA technology. Series: Synthesis. Num Pages: 304 pages, 18 halftones, 10 line drawings. BIC Classification: PSAK; PSB; TBX; TCB. Category: (G) General (US: Trade). Dimension: 166 x 257 x 28. Weight in Grams: 612. . 2015. 1st Edition. Hardcover. . . . . Books ship from the US and Ireland.

Seller Inventory # V9780226143835

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Recombinant University: Genetic Engineering and the Emergence of Stanford Biotechnology (Synthesis)
• Publisher: University Of Chicago Press
• Publication Date: 2015
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 022614383X
• ISBN 13: 9780226143835
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

The advent of recombinant DNA technology in the 1970s was a key moment in the history of both biotechnology and the commercialization of academic research. Doogab Yi’s The Recombinant University draws us deeply into the academic community in the San Francisco Bay Area, where the technology was developed and adopted as the first major commercial technology for genetic engineering. In doing so, it reveals how research patronage, market forces, and legal developments from the late 1960s through the early 1980s influenced the evolution of the technology and reshaped the moral and scientific life of biomedical researchers.

Bay Area scientists, university administrators, and government officials were fascinated by and increasingly engaged in the economic and political opportunities associated with the privatization of academic research. Yi uncovers how the attempts made by Stanford scientists and administrators to demonstrate the relevance of academic research were increasingly mediated by capitalistic conceptions of knowledge, medical innovation, and the public interest. Their interventions resulted in legal shifts and moral realignments that encouraged the privatization of academic research for public benefit. The Recombinant University brings to life the hybrid origin story of  biotechnology and the ways the academic culture of science has changed in tandem with the early commercialization of recombinant DNA technology.

About the Author

Doogab Yi is assistant professor of history and science and technology studies at Seoul National University, where he teaches the history of science as well as science and the law.