Tossé Lindzy

Associate researcher, Idip

Fabricating a local population for genomic medicine. A socio-historical and epistemological study of the conditions under which the Grand Ouest DNA bank was set up (France, 1983 - 2017)

Thesis defended on 6 September 2023

Jury

Richard Redon, Inserm Research Director, Thorax Institute Research Unit (thesis co-director)
Catherine Bourgain, Inserm Research Director, Cermes3 (joint thesis supervisor)
Emmanuel Didier, CNRS Research Director, Maurice Halbwachs Centre, Ecole normale supérieure / EHESS (rapporteur)
Jean Paul Gaudillière, Inserm Research Director, Director of Studies at EHESS, Cermes3 (rapporteur)
Claire Beaudevin, Inserm research fellow, Cermes3 (examiner)
Stéphane Tirard, University Professor, Nantes University (examiner)

Résumé

The last thirty years have seen the massive creation of population-based DNA banks, presented as an indispensable tool for research into biology and health. The thesis uses a social studies approach to science, technology and health in society (STS), including ethnographic participant observation, semi-directive open interviews and documentary analysis, to study why and how a healthcare and research institute set up Prego, a reference DNA bank of 5,000 healthy blood donors from the Greater West of France in 2013.

The historical study traces the circulation and stabilisation of knowledge, practices and resources between the clinic, the laboratory and the region. It reveals that disciplines such as genetics, spatial genetic epidemiology and geography, as well as funding strategies and support from regional institutions, play key roles in anchoring the Institute in the region.

The sociological study shows that the form and success of the creation of the biobank depend on scientific selection criteria, the type of funding, and the material and practical contingencies specific to blood collections and donor sorting. Altruism and trust in public institutions are important factors in blood donors' decision-making.

The epistemological study follows the development by the institute of its own form of biomedicine based on the molecularisation of local disease diagnoses and the creation of local populations, epistemic objects whose transformation into technical objects gives it skills that enable it to influence national genomic medicine.


Key words: DNA biobank; Creation of a native reference population in Western France; Cardiovascular diseases; Blood donation; STS, history, epistemology and sociology of science and medicine.