Caring for social complexity in nanomedicine

Nanomedicine and personalised medicine: understanding the personalisation of health care in the molecular era

Globally supported by public policy and investment, nanomedicine is presented as an ongoing medical revolution that will radically change the practice of health care from diagnostic to therapeutic, and everything in between. One of nanomedicine's major promises is that of personalised medicine, enabling diagnostics and therapeutics tailored to individual needs and developing a truly 'patient-friendly' medical approach. Based on qualitative interviews with nanomedicine researchers in Canada, this article explores the emerging concept of personalised medicine as it becomes entangled with nanomedical research. More precisely, drawing on insights from science studies and the sociology of expectations, it analyses researchers' perceptions of personalised medicine in the cutting edge of current nanomedicine research. Two perceptions of personalisation are identified; a molecular conception of individuality and a technical conception of personalisation. The article concludes by examining the relationship between the two conceptions and contrasts them with the normative reflex of a more expansive conception of personalised medicine.

Of drug administration, war and oïkos: mediating cancer with nanomedicines

This paper focuses on nano-enabled drug delivery systems (NDDS) in the context of cancer medicine. It regards NDDS as relational objects whose modes of existence are defined by their relationships with a complex biocultural environment that includes both the biological processes of our bodies and the values representations and metaphors our societies associate with cancer and cancer therapy. Within this framework the abundant use of war metaphors in NDDS --from 'smart bombs' to 'magic nano-bullets'--is discussed from various angles: in terms of therapeutic efficacy, it limits the potential of the technique by preventing the inclusion of the (patho)biological environment in the nanomedicine's mode of action. In terms of development opportunities, the military strategy of active specific targeting faces cost and complexity bottlenecks. In terms of ethical values, it favors the questionable image of cancer patients as 'fighters'. On the basis of these criticisms different metaphorical frameworks are suggested, in particular that of oïkos, whereby nanomedicine is reframed as a kind of domestic economy addressing the system-environment relationships of embodied processes with further imagination and care.

Nanotoxicology and challenges of translation

This paper focuses on the processes of translation in nanomedical research practices and contributes to a context- and object-centred research agenda in Science and Technology Studies. In particular, it addresses how nano-specific issues in medical research are exacerbated by uncertainty and unpredictability. Analyzing the relationship between nanomedicine and nanotoxicology I discuss how scientists are involved in highly uncertain processes, which require a contingent and experimental approach to nano-objects in everyday laboratory practices. Consequently, the dealings with nanomedical materials evoke a reformulation of numerous traditional forms of toxicological knowledge and knowledge practices, and challenge the self-concept of toxicology as a testing discipline.

Polymers and nanomedicine: considerations on variability and reproducibility when combining complex systems

Hot topics in polymer science in the recent years and decades included macromolecular engineering enabled by controlled and living polymerization, use of polymers in biomedical applications. Control over polymerization and the structure of polymers increased tremendously. Despite the increased control over various polymerization techniques, polymers are intrinsically statistical in nature leading to a structural variability. As researchers combine polymers and biological systems, we combine two complex systems. Interestingly though, only the study of biological assays is subject to systematic scrutiny with respect to their reproducibility and variability. Here, it is argued that polymer synthesis should also be considered with systematic variability analysis, in particular in connection with downstream processes such as biological assays.