Immunitary bioeconomy: the economisation of life in the international cord blood market.

This paper examines an emerging bioeconomy centred on the international banking and trade in cord blood. Since the late 1980s cord blood has been used in an expanding range of treatments and as an alternative to the use of bone marrow stem cells. This is particularly the case in treating ethnic minority populations who have historically been under-represented in bone marrow registries. The paper explores the mobilisation and commercialisation of an increasingly important bioeconomic resource with cord blood units trading internationally at high prices. This is a market mediated through a sophisticated global network of immunologically typed and matched bodily matter in which immunity has become a form of 'corporeal currency'. Based on recent international figures we reflect upon the balance of trade between imports and exports across the world's cord blood bioeconomy. Theoretically, this case is, we suggest, an extension of what Roberto Esposito (2008) has termed an 'immunitary paradigm' in which immunity has become the basis for new forms of bioeconomic flow, circulation and exchange. Esposito (2008). Bios: Biopolitics and Philosophy. Minnesota, MN: University of Minnesota Press.

The visual politics of animals in bioscience--earmice in the public sphere.

This paper reports on a UK social science and anthropological study into the debates surrounding xenotransplantation (XT), involving interviews and focus group discussions across a number of different stakeholders (scientists, regulators and publics--including patient groups and other lay participants). In these discussions, one image in particular--that of 'earmouse'--surfaced repeatedly in consideration of XT and allied areas of bioscience. Whilst the image itself has little technically in common with XT or transgenic biotechnologies, it has nevertheless become ineradicably connected with them. This paper seeks to make sense of earmouse as an iconic reference through which people articulate their differing and highly contested views on bioscience.

Commercial development of stem cell technology: lessons from the past, strategies for the future.

This paper presents historical and contemporary survey data on the commercial development of stem cell technology from the 1990s to the present day. We describe the first wave of industrial investment in hematopoietic stem cells during the 1990s and contrast this with the more recent expansion of the sector. In particular, we explore the cell types used, diseases targeted and business models adopted by firms. We conclude, by arguing that the commercial prospects for stem cell technologies remain highly uncertain and that innovative public policies should be adopted to prevent 'market failure'.