Resisting bodies: The practices and politics of the immune system

Kunnskap om immunsystemet, hva det består av og hvordan det fungerer, er under stadig endring i livsvitenskapene. En viktig del av kunnskapsproduksjonen handler om å sammenligne immunologiske problemstillinger i ulike dyrearter, og mellom mennesker og dyr. En årsak til dette er en økende forekomst av zoonoser, det vil si virussykdommer som smitter mellom dyr og mennesker. En annen årsak er at kunnskap om kroppers motstand mot sykdom i økende grad blir sett på som avgjørende for å sikre innovasjoner innen kreftbehandling og behandling av kroniske sykdommer, vaksineutvikling, samt utviklingen av en bærekraftig bioøkonomi rundt havbruk. ResBod har som mål å studere de ulike måtene kunnskap om immunforsvaret frembringes og hvordan immunologisk kunnskap tas opp, bestrides og/eller forvaltes i konkrete politiske og kulturelle sammenhenger. Gjennom unike empiriske studier av immunologisk grunnforskning, immunterapi, vaksineutvikling og massevaksinering, vil ResBod bidra til en bedre forståelse av nåværende og historiske problemstillinger knyttet til immunsystemet. Et sentralt bidrag fra ResBod vil være å utvikle nye perspektiver og metoder som kan bedre beskrive og analysere den mer-enn-menneskelige kompleksiteten i vitenskapelige og politiske praksiser som retter seg mot å trygge helse og sikre motstand mot sykdom.

The immune system, what it consists of and how it works, has become a key concern in life science research that aim to develop medical innovations for distinctly different health issues. For instance, knowledge of the immune system is regarded as vital for securing innovations in cancer treatment and the treatment of chronic diseases, vaccine development and the sustainable development of bioeconomies such as aquaculture. Common to these different ways of engaging with the immune system is that developing knowledge of how it works, how it resists, and how to protect it, involves understanding and managing the relationship between human bodies and non-human organisms. The primary objective of ResBod is to understand current and past challenges in the life sciences and politics of managing human and animal health, and ecological sustainability through immunological paradigms. Through unique empirical studies of comparative immunology, translational medicine, vaccine innovations and licensing practices, ResBod aims to study how the immune system is approached and worked upon in science - in the lab, field and in communication practices, and how immunological knowledge and challenges are taken up and contested in national and global political contexts. The project builds upon and further develop analytical approaches and tools to study science in action and the relationship between science, society and politics through a more-than-human framework and material-semiotics. This involves studying how nonhumans are engaged with and shape immunological practices and knowledge of humans and nonhuman animals and the relationship between different species. Studies of the immune system and immunology have focussed mainly on the metaphorical work in immunology and how it often mimics or work as frameworks for understanding societal and political relations. Significantly less attention has been paid to situated scientific practices and rhetorics and how knowledge of the immune system is constantly being challenged by nonhuman animals as well as in the public. Hence, these approaches contribute to enhanced understanding of current and historical issues related to the immune system and how immunological knowledge affects our understanding of ourselves and human relations with the more-than-human.