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REPORT
MAPPING THE NEW MOLECULAR LANDSCAPE
Social and Ethical Aspects of Epigenetics
A symposium held at the Playfair Library, Old College
The University of Edinburgh • 24 September 2012
Organised by Dr Martyn Pickersgill and Professor Sarah Cunningham-Burley
BACKGROUND
This one-day event sought to bring to light and interrogate some
of the ethical and social dimensions of the field of epigenetics.
Epigenetics is the study of changes in gene expression or
organism phenotype caused by mechanisms other than changes
in the underlying DNA (e.g. methylation). At the current time, the
implications of this relatively new field of research for science,
health and society are unclear; sustained attention from social
scientists and bioethicists has been lacking. However, the field
is characterized by promises and expectations, including from
some sociologists who have been encouraged by the resonance
between imaginaries of development within epigenetics and social
theory. To a limited degree, epigenetic ideas are also translating
into popular culture; for instance, they may be used to ‘explain’
antisocial behaviour or depression in children and adolescents.
Often, the findings enrolled are results from animal studies, raising
questions about what part epigenetics is playing in the mediation
of public understandings regarding the relationships between
animal and human minds and bodies. In terms of policy, the
ways in which epigenetics may be used to support or extend the
surveillance of particular populations will demand our attention.
The aim of this symposium was to bring together social scientists
and bioethicists with an established interest in issues related
to epigenetics, in order to explore what some of the key social
and ethical issues currently seem to be, and what - based on
the history of molecular genetics - we might justifiably expect to
see emerge in the future. Following introductions from Professor
Sarah Cunningham-Burley and Dr Martyn Pickersgill (University
of Edinburgh), three speakers presented their research and
reflections:
Dr Jörg Niewöhner, Assistant Professor, Institute for
European Ethnology, Humboldt University.
[email protected]
Professor Paul Martin, Professor of Sociology, Department
of Sociological Studies, University of Sheffield.
[email protected]
Dr Ilina Singh, Reader in Bioethics & Society, Department of
Social Science, Health and Medicine, King’s College London.
[email protected]
SOCIAL AND ETHICAL ASPECTS OF AN
EMERGING MOLECULAR BIOLOGY OF
SOCIAL ‘POSITION’
Dr Jörg Niewöhner, Humboldt University
Niewöhner began his talk by outlining some of
the key areas of research in epigenetics that
have garnered the attention and enthusiasm of
researchers in this area. In particular, he highlighted:
canonical studies of the effects of methylation on
rat coat colour; investigations into chemicals and
pollutants that affect health and induce epigenetic
change; environmental effects on nursing behaviour
in rats; and, research into the brain chemistry of
individuals who had committed suicide, comparing
those who had and had not experienced child abuse.
These areas of research cast light upon some of
the complexities between genes and environment,
across different temporal and spatial scales. These
were acknowledged by scientists and a problematic
to which they attended. Other scientific difficulties
researchers were endeavouring to unpick included:
the sheer complexity of environmental contexts;
the transmission of epigenetic marks; and the
significance of stochastic effects. Though optimistic
about the work of epigeneticists, Niewöhner also
argued that there were implicit assumptions about
the nature of social life contained within their
accounts which warranted questioning. Accordingly,
social scientists should not solely treat epigenetics
as just another as another case study; rather,
anthropologists, sociologists and STS scholars
could actively seek to influence its development by
critically engaging with biologists on the basis of
their respective understandings of the human body,
processes of social and material ordering, and their
effects on different levels of analysis.
“A CENTRAL ISSUE IN BIOLOGY”:
EPIGENETICS, DEVELOPMENT AND THE
(RE) MAKING OF MOLECULAR MEDICINE
Professor Paul Martin, University of Sheffield
In his presentation, Martin sketched out an approach
from science and technology studies (STS) to
articulating and grappling with the social and ethical
aspects of epigenetics. He was especially concerned
with how the field was being imagined and developed;
what forms of knowledge, practices and applications are
considered salient, and how are these being compared
and related to genomics? These have implications for the
kinds of networks that can be built to propel innovation, and
the policy and clinical implications of this. Like Niewöhner,
Martin underscored the salience of temporality and
complexity as issues that represent scientific challenges
but, in so doing, drive studies forward. He further noted
that it was in the area of cancer biology that epigenetics
has gained most traction, in terms of research outputs
and the mobilisation of resources. In particular, a number
of epigenetic drugs were already on the market, with total
sales of nearly $1billion. The production of epigenetic
knowledge of cancer is related to new technologies and
tools, new methodologies, rapidly growing public and
private investment (such as (inter)national research
programmes to develop epistemic infrastructure), and
increasing numbers of publications (accounting for the
vast majority of the field). Yet, epigenetics also builds
on established genome sequencing technologies and
infrastructures. Visions of an ‘epigenetic future’ are evident,
which entail high hopes within mainstream biomedicine
for new understandings of disease pathology to emerge.
However, these are being more cautiously articulated than
in early days of genomics.
PLASTICITY, EPIGENETICS AND EARLY
INTERVENTION: THINKING IN CASES
Dr Ilina Singh, KCL
Singh considered the ethical aspects of epigenetics
through an examination of the ‘prodrome’: this is regarded
in biomedicine as a set of symptoms that might indicate
the beginning of a disease, before actual symptoms are
present. Singh argued that the emerging emphasis on
brain plasticity and early intervention in child mental
health was directing the clinical and political gaze towards
the prodome as a ‘site’ for intervention; discourses of
plasticity, for instance, are seen to justify the need for
early intervention in autism. Singh highlighted some of
the ethical issues associated with the generic use of early
intervention strategies in childhood, noting that many of
the markers postulated as prodromal are not necessarily
clinically salient. Yet, these biomarkers have traction
within a range of spheres, and epigenetic changes have
been invoked as (potential) mechanisms for these. The
fact that epigenetic modifications necessarily involve
both genetic and environmental components forces us
to reflect on what kinds of interventions are acceptable,
and thus which moral frameworks are suitable for thinking
about these matters: a population ethics of public health
intervention, or a biomedical ethic of individualised drug
treatment? These are longstanding questions - of import
to health professionals, ethicists, and social scientists –
and an increasing focus on epigenetics enjoins renewed
engagement with them.
DISCUSSION
Following the presentations, the event participants formed
break-out groups to discuss the common themes emerging
from the day, and the key social and ethical questions and
issues that resonated with them. Issues around ontologies
and collaboration were of particular interest. In the first
case, what actually was epigenetics? As a field, it seems
more and more heterogeneous and unconsolidated the
closer it is inspected. What implications does this have
for social scientific and bioethical appraisal? Further,
what kinds of effects - if any - will epigenetics have on
other areas of biomedicine, such as genomics, and wider
understandings of inheritance and the human subject? In
regards to collaboration, there was enthusiasm for potential
social science and ethical engagement with epigenetics,
including in terms of collaborative practice in the research
itself (as has been undertaken in synthetic biology).
However, there was also unease about the possibility of
being reduced to a ‘handmaiden’ for biomedicine, and
a recognition of the considerable epistemological work
that might need to be undertaken in order to render
social scientific and epigenetic data mutually legible and
interactive within studies.
Dr Ruth Müller (University of Vienna) rounded up the
day with concluding comments that underscored the
challenges and opportunities inherent to engaging with a
field itself dealing with considerable social and biological
complexity. She also noted the potential danger of
epigenetic research being incorporated into a regime of
simplistic and reductionistic ‘environmental determinism’,
which would reify existing gendered and classed moral
discourses.
‘Mapping the New Molecular Landscape’ was convened as part of The
Wellcome Trust Strategic Programme on ‘The Human Body, Its Scope,
Limits and Future’. Based at the University of Manchester and directed
by Professor John Harris, this award enables sustained collaboration
between bioethicists at Manchester and social science colleagues at the
University of Edinburgh. Professor Sarah Cunningham-Burley is a coinvestigator, and Dr Martyn Pickersgill is part of the wider project team.
crfr
centre for research on
families and relationships
This report was prepared by Dr Martyn Pickersgill and Dr Isabel Fletcher.
For more information, please write to: [email protected]
THE HUMAN BODY
its scope, limits, and future