Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
ity is the error rate, which is carefully monitored by a team of quality
control engineers. The appearance and the confi guration of the space,
and the movement within it, certifi es the knowledge that is produced.
The division between the front region of 7CC and the back region of
320 Charles largely matches the division between “higher” and “lower”
bioinformatics described earlier in this chapter. The difference in status
between biological practices based on mathematics, statistics, and bench
work and biological practices based on informatics and databases is
represented in the physical spaces of the laboratories in which they are
performed. The notion that the former practices constitute the “real”
work of biology and that production sequencing is mere technical sup-
port is reinforced by their front region/back region confi guration. Sell-
ing biology to its funders, as Lander is well aware, means projecting
an image (putting on a performance, if we are to follow Goffman's ter-
minology) of a biology that not only is open and transparent, but also
offers immediate and tangible benefi ts for human health. In September
2008, the Broad Institute received an additional (and record-breaking)
$400 million gift from Eli and Edythe Broad: “Of all our philanthropy,”
Eli Broad announced, “the Broad Institute has been the investment that
has yielded the greatest returns. . . . We are convinced that the genomics
and biomedical work being conducted here . . . will ultimately lead to
the cure and even the prevention of diseases.”
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7CC is highly conform-
able to the image of a place in which such medical advancements will
be made; its confi guration not as a traditional laboratory but as a mixed
lab-offi ce space associates it with medical practice.
At the Broad, this strong emphasis on medical applications requires
a fl uid and immediate interaction between biologists and computer sci-
entists. A typical problem might be to determine all the locations in the
human genome that are strongly linked to the development of Crohn's
disease.
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Such work involves gathering samples from a large number
of patients (usually at an affi liated hospital), processing the samples,
performing the genotyping for each sample, developing computational
and statistical methods to analyze the entire set of genotypes, and fi -
nally examining the results of this analysis to see whether they provide
any clues about the biological pathways through which the disease acts.
Close and rapid communication between those collecting the samples
(medical doctors), those preparing them (wet-lab biologists), and those
performing the analysis (computer scientists) speeds the process. 7CC
presents a vision of integrated, medically oriented, scientifi cally rigorous,
and productive biology. The work done here is perceived as valuable by
those both inside and outside the Broad because of its applicability to
