Post-Doc position: an investigation of the collective dynamics of bio-clinical innovation

 

The project “Oncology's metaknowledge networks” is funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and involves three partners: the department of Social Studies of Medicine at McGill University (Alberto Cambrosio - project leader), the Knowledge Lab which is part of the University of Chicago’s Computation Institute (James Evans), and LISIS in Paris (Jean-Philippe Cointet).

In the last four decades, oncology has shifted from a small, marginal domain within biomedicine to one of the largest, most central, and successful biomedical domains. Oncology has pioneered the most innovative approaches to translational research and genomics. In spite of the field’s staggering expansion, a relatively small number of oncologists—the oncology “core set”—appear to define the international research and treatment agenda, with unknown consequences for medicine and human health. Our project seeks to achieve a deep understanding of how the organization and institutions of oncology research shape how oncology “thinks”. To gain such an understanding, the project draws on various digital archives and innovative computational tools to trace research teams and collaboration networks, investigative and clinical technologies, the myriad recombinant elements under investigation—tissues, cells, genes, proteins, biomarkers—and the changing landscape of institutions that host them