From 1/10/2015 to 31/01/2016.
Analysis of biomedical literature on UCB banking, analysis of bioethical and policy documents. Literature review of STS on bioeconomy and biomedicine. Elaboration of an analytical model that analyses value production in UCB banking surpassing the dominant model employed by bioethics and biomedical literature. Our model shows that the whole UCB bioeconomy cannot be enclosed in rigid distinctions (public-private, redistributive-market economy), but it works through complex economic configurations that overlap, crisscross and hybridize economic forms and institutional arrangements.
A paper entitled A Critical Assessment of the Notion of Hybrid Practices in Tissue Baking has been presented at the International Conference “Living in a Technoscientific World” (Vienna 3-5 December 2015).
An article has been published by one of the most important journal in STS studies of biomedicine:
C. Hauskeller, L. Beltrame 2016. The hybrid bioeconomy of umbilical cord blood banking: Re-examining the narrative of opposition between public and private services. BioSocieties 11(4): 415-434
The article is gold open-access and the financial support by Marie-Curie (Horizon 2020, 657361) is acknowledged in the manuscript.
From1/2/2017 to 1/7/2016.
Analysis of national regulations in UCB banking and the role of national authorities. Analysis of the role of international organizations and of their standards in UCB banking, processing and release. Analysis of private banking materials. Theoretical work on political economy, economic sociology and on sociology of social relations.
A paper entitled Rethinking the Embeddedness of Cord Blood Economy has been presented at the conference “Global Societies: Fragmenting and Connecting, British Sociological Association Annual Conference” (Birmingham 6-8 April 2016).
An article has been published by one of the major journal in STS studies of biomedicine:
C. Hauskeller and L. Beltrame 2016. Hybrid Practices in Cord Blood Banking. Rethinking the Commodification of Human Tissues in the Bioeconomy. New Genetics and Society 35(3), pp. 228-245.
Financial support by Marie-Curie (Horizon 2020, 657361) is acknowledged in the manuscript.
From 1/8/2016 to 1/1/2017.
Starting of the fieldwork with interviews with UCB bank practitioners in Italy and the UK.
We have also organized a panel track entitled Biobanks. The interdependence between forms of biovalue creation and donor participation at the main international conference in STS “Science and Technology by other Means, 4S/EASST Joint conference” (Barcelona, August 31-September 3 2016).
A paper entitled Rethinking the Social Embeddedness of Cord Blood Banking has been presented at the conference “Science and Technology by other Means, 4S/EASST Joint conference” (Barcelona, August 31-September 3, 2016).
A book chapter entitled The Bioeconomies of Stem Cell Research has been written for being published in an edited book entitled The Matrix of Stem Cell Research Revisited that will be published by Rutledge in 2018.
We have also submitted a proposal for a Special Issue entitled Biobanks. The entanglement of forms of participation, identities and biovalues in emerging biobanking configurations to Tecnoscienza. The Italian Journal of Science and Technology Studies. The proposal has been accepted and we will edit the Special Issue that will be published in 2018.
From 1/1/2017 to 28/2/2017.
REGUCB has been prematurely closed since the researcher has obtained a position with a tenure track option in an Italian university. In this period the fieldwork will continue and the researcher will finalise three papers prepared during the project that will be submitted to international journals.
A paper entitled Opportunities and Problems in Hybrid UCB Banking Organisation, summarizing the results of REGUCB project will be presented at the international conference Cord Blood World Europe 2017 (London May 17-18 2017).
