Phage therapy, or how to think about the complex assemblages of humans and microbes

Bacteriophages (or phages) are viruses that have bacteria as their hosts. Discovered a century ago, and rapidly used as therapeutic agents to treat bacterial infections, they were nevertheless eclipsed by the massive rise of antibiotics from the 1940s onward. Faced with the major public health scourge of antimicrobial resistance, some scientists and physicians are attempting to rekindle and develop therapeutic phages, encountering considerable difficulties along the way. This talk will develop the idea that phage therapy and antibiotic therapy rely on two radically distinct conceptions of infectiology, and of medicine more generally. It traces the way researchers and physicians are actively challenging dominant sociocultural narratives about our becoming with microbes. As such they are engaged in the production of a new narrative about humans, viruses and bacteria, a complex story that invites us to rethink our relationships with microbes, the environment and living things more widely

Phage therapy, or how to think about the complex assemblages of humans and microbes

Bacteriophages (or phages) are viruses that have bacteria as their hosts. Discovered a century ago, and rapidly used as therapeutic agents to treat bacterial infections, they were nevertheless eclipsed by the massive rise of antibiotics from the 1940s onward. Faced with the major public health scourge of antimicrobial resistance, some scientists and physicians are attempting to rekindle and develop therapeutic phages, encountering considerable difficulties along the way. This talk will develop the idea that phage therapy and antibiotic therapy rely on two radically distinct conceptions of infectiology, and of medicine more generally. It traces the way researchers and physicians are actively challenging dominant sociocultural narratives about our becoming with microbes. As such they are engaged in the production of a new narrative about humans, viruses and bacteria, a complex story that invites us to rethink our relationships with microbes, the environment and living things more widely

From fighting against to becoming with : viruses as companion species

Since the development of microbiology in the second half of the 19th century, as well as the recognition of the role of microbes in infectious diseases, viruses are first and foremost conceived as dangerous and deadly entities against which we must fight. This chapter is built around three examples of relationships between humans and viruses that the author, taking seriously the proposal made in this book, proposes to rethink using the notion of domestication. In doing so, we are gradually led to think about our relationships with viruses from the perspective of coexistence, opening the way to other ways of thinking about our health policies

L’individu dans un essai thérapeutique, Sur quelques aspects du devenir objet dans les expérimentations scientifiques

International audienceThis paper questions the status of the individual listed in a therapeutic test designed as a scientific experimentation. From an analysis of a process of a trial carried out in Abidjan on the benefits and risks of an early treatment for HIV-positive patients, the aim is to show how an individual is categorized (medical community/ profession, subjective individual, subject of a test, amongst others), then objectified. The conception of the trial focused on the individual as an object is replaced by the conception of the trial focused on the interactions between, on one side, the virus itself and, on the other side, the individual seen as the virus’ environment of life, or Umwelt. Within this frame, far from being a passive actor, the subject becomes an active member of the experimental system and takes part in his own objectivation.Cet article propose de questionner le statut de l’individu enrôlé dans un essai thérapeutique conçu comme expérimentation scientifique. À partir d’une analyse des procédures papier d’un essai mené à Abidjan sur les bénéfices et risques de la mise sous traitement précoce de patients séropositifs, il s’agit de montrer comment l’individu est catégorisé (corps médicalisé, individu subjectif, sujet d’un essai, entre autres), puis objectivé. À la conception de l’essai centré sur l’individu comme objet fait alors place une conception de l’essai centré sur les interactions entre le virus d’un côté, et l’individu conçu comme milieu de vie, ou Umwelt, du virus, de l’autre. Dans ce cadre, loin d’être un acteur passif, le sujet devient un membre actif du dispositif expérimental et participe de sa propre objectivation

Biomedical packages

Clinical trials are a fundamental stage in a drug’s biography for they provide the standard by which a molecule’s therapeutic status is determined. Through this process of experimentation, a pharmaceutical substance acquires a new competence – that of treating or preventing disease. This article examines experimentation in drug production, and shows how this complex apparatus not only transforms the status of the molecule but also produces new understandings of and expectations for how people should act. Drawing upon observation of a trial of prophylactic prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV, in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, I show that the production of this biomedical technology – the therapeutic drug – is coupled with the production of its users. In so doing, I challenge the conception of drugs as bounded objects and instead offer the concept of ‘biomedical package’, which highlights the social relations that characterise it

Of yeast and men : anthropology of relationships between humans and non-humans amongst a biology laboratory

Cette investigation anthropologique touche aux types de relations qu'entretiennent les scientifiques, et plus particulièrement les biologistes, avec ceux que l'on a coutume de nommer leurs "objets de recherche". Partant du constat que l'usage de catégories comme la rationalité ou l'objectivité, ou encore les dichotomies sujet/objet et nature/culture ne peuvent que nuire à un rendu de l'expérience scientifique qui tienne compte de ce qui importe réellement aux chercheurs, cette thèse se déploie autour d'un laboratoire et de l'observation minutieuse des interactions entre les deux espèces dominantes qui le définissent : l'Homme et la levure Saccharomyces cerevisiae, et interroge ainsi sous un autre angle des notions comme le réductionnisme, l'objectivité ou encore l'universalité des connaissances produites par les sciences occidentales.This anthropological investigation concerns the types of relationships between scientists, and more specifically biologists, with those actually called their “research object”. From the assessment that the use of categories such as rationality or objectivity, or the dichotomies subject/object and nature/culture can only be prejudicial to a rendition of the scientific experiment which considers what really matters to the researchers, this PhD takes place around a laboratory and around meticulous observation of the interactions between the two prevailing species which define it : the Man and the Saccharomyces cerevisiae yeast, and question therefore with a different perspective notions such as reductionism, objectivity or universality of knowledge made from western sciences

L’individu dans un essai thérapeutique

Cet article propose de questionner le statut de l’individu enrôlé dans un essai thérapeutique conçu comme expérimentation scientifique. À partir d’une analyse des procédures papier d’un essai mené à Abidjan sur les bénéfices et risques de la mise sous traitement précoce de patients séropositifs, il s’agit de montrer comment l’individu est catégorisé (corps médicalisé, individu subjectif, sujet d’un essai, entre autres), puis objectivé. À la conception de l’essai centré sur l’individu comme objet fait alors place une conception de l’essai centré sur les interactions entre le virus d’un côté, et l’individu conçu comme milieu de vie, ou Umwelt, du virus, de l’autre. Dans ce cadre, loin d’être un acteur passif, le sujet devient un membre actif du dispositif expérimental et participe de sa propre objectivation.This paper questions the status of the individual listed in a therapeutic test designed as a scientific experimentation. From an analysis of a process of a trial carried out in Abidjan on the benefits and risks of an early treatment for HIV-positive patients, the aim is to show how an individual is categorized (medical community/ profession, subjective individual, subject of a test, amongst others), then objectified. The conception of the trial focused on the individual as an object is replaced by the conception of the trial focused on the interactions between, on one side, the virus itself and, on the other side, the individual seen as the virus’ environment of life, or Umwelt. Within this frame, far from being a passive actor, the subject becomes an active member of the experimental system and takes part in his own objectivation.En este artículo se cuestiona el estatus del individuo suscrito a una prueba terapéutica que fue concebida como experimentación científica. A partir de un análisis de los procedimientos escritos en un ensayo realizado en Abidján, sobre los beneficios y riesgos de la aplicación de tratamientos precoces en pacientes seropositivos, se trata exponer como el individuo esta categorizado (cuerpo medicalizado, individuo subjetivo, sujeto de una prueba, entre otros) y luego objetivado. A la concepción de una prueba basada en el individuo como objeto se hace sitio a una concepción de la prueba centrada en las interacciones entre el virus por un lado, y el individuo concebido como medio de vida (u Umwelt) del virus, por otro lado. En este marco, lejos de ser un actor pasivo, el sujeto llega a ser un miembro activo del dispositivo experimental y participa a su propia objetivación