The Centre for Medical Science and Technology Studies (MeST) was established in 2010 by Lene Koch as a collaboration between scholars in the Section of Health Services Research and Medical Museion, Department of Public Health, University of Copenhagen. Previous directors include Mette Nordahl Svendsen, Henriette Langstrup and Ezio Di Nucci. MeST is currently headed by Anja Marie Bornø Jensen.

MeST is affiliated with:

• STSC - Center for Science, Technology, Medicine & Society, University of California, Berkeley.
• MHS - Medical Humanities Sheffield, University of Sheffield 
• Biotechnologies, Nature and Society Research Group, Goethe University, Frankfurt

MeST contributes to national network initiatives:

• DASTS – Danish Association for Science and Technology Studies
• Research Network for the Anthropology of Technology

Being the largest assemblage of scholars in the field of medical science and technology studies in this part of the world, the Centre aims to play an active role in the international STS research community and thereby attract scholars of international standing in the field for short or long-term research stays at the Centre.

Special efforts are made to coordinate visits by prominent scholars to fit the teaching aims of the Faculty, especially on the postgraduate level. 

Current projects

PREPARE

Professor Klaus Høyer

PREPARE for the delivery of socially robust stem cell medicine. An interdisciplinary research team with expertise in medical sociology, science and technology studies, science communication, bioethics, clinical translation regulation, and health economics will work with reNEW researchers at our three partner institutions to consider issues affecting potential impact, development, and delivery of stem cell medicine to the market. We will capture patient voices and concerns so that stem cell researchers can direct their product development toward what matters to the people they are trying to help.

See: https://renew.science/research/prepare/

TechneEmotion (1/9 2022 – 31/8 2025)

Anja Marie Bornø Jensen (PI), Zainab Sheikh, Sofie á Rogvi, Lesley Sharp

The hope of solving the constant organ shortage gives rise to many new medical technologies presenting us with new treatment options, new ethical dilemmas and new ways of interfering with human and animal bodies.
TechnEmotion deals with the interaction between technology and emotion in organ transplantation by exploring ethnographically the ethical and existential implications of new transplant technologies, such as xenotransplantation, new death criteria for organ donors, stem cell research, and ex-vivo technologies (organs in machines). Focusing on emotional practices among patients, families, healthcare professionals, researchers and policy makers, we investigate how humans are affected by new technologies and, conversely, we focus on the role and power of emotions when new transplant technologies are developed and implemented in clinical practice.

Face2Face (2021-2022)
A practice-oriented pilot project that investigates whether drama and music can give children with cerebral palsy greater sense of self and other and build community and friendship through creativity.
In collaboration with actor Lotte Arnsbjerg and Elsass Fonden. Jeanette Bresson Ladegaard Knox (PI).

bioethicsCPH: research and teaching in bioethics at the University of Copenhagen (2019-2023)

Ezio Di Nucci

We are a diverse group of philosophers doing research and teaching in and around bioethics, medical ethics, and ethics and philosophy of technology at the Department of Public Health, University of Copenhagen.

See: https://publichealth.ku.dk/bioethics/

Body Time: Metabolism, Multicyclic Being and Temporal Environments (2019-2022)

Louise Whiteley and Adam Bencard.

We are all timepieces. Circadian rhythms connect our bodies with the world around us – the clocks in our cells regulating patterns of eating, sleeping and exercising. The Body Time project is interested in these rhythms, temporality and health in the lab, in history and in public.

See: www.museion.ku.dk/body-time/

Microbes on the Mind

Louise Whiteley, Adam Bencard

In the last decade, a new scientific research field has grown up around a startling insight: the trillions of bacteria that live in our gut seem to affect how the brain develops and functions. Whilst this scientific research is still at an early stage, results are already escaping the laboratory and catching the attention of journalists, doctors, and patients alike. This project therefore asks: what does microbiome research mean for our understanding of mental illness and its treatment? How is meaning created within and across the domains of science, media culture, and personal experience? The methods include open, experimental workshops in the Mind the Gut exhibition at Medical Museion, designed through collaboration with creative writers.

MeInWe (2017-2022)

Mette Nordahl Svendsen, Mie Seest Dam, Laura Emdal Navne, Iben Mundbjerg Gjødsbøl, Jeanette Bresson Ladegaard Knox, Clémence Pauline Cécile Pinel

Personalized Medicine in the Danish Welfare State (MeInWe) explores how strategies of tailoring diagnosis, treatment and prevention to individual genetic variability challenge existing ethical, organizational and regulatory frameworks in medicine. The project asks two central questions: How is “the personal” understood and established when genomic data are applied and exchanged in Danish health care? Which collectivities—e.g. species, ethnicity, nation, health care services, and ultimately the welfare state— are implied in constituting “the personal”? With these questions MeInWe critically assesses how strategies of personalized medicine draw boundaries around the person (the me), and how collectivities (the we) are shaped and negotiated in creating knowledge about the individual.

Past projects

• Body and Person: Governing Exchange in 21st Century Biomedicine
• LifeWorth: What is a life worth living?
• mHealth with minors living with a chronic condition
• POLICYAID
• The Ageing Professor
• Technologies of participation in healthcare: How is patient generated data reconfiguring care?
• eHealth with minors living with a chronic condition
• Sequelae and Survivorship: Being in Life after Cancer?
• Negotiating needs, negotiating old age – a practice study of transitions in eldercare as played out in the introduction of enabling care 
• Knowledge negotiation and AI in medical imaging
• Kommunikation og kræftdiagnoser: Et kvalitativt studie på en diagnostisk enhed

News and activities will be posted on our Facebook page and Twitter

Upcoming events

17 April 10:00-12:30, Dr Google and beyond

24 April 11:00-12:00, Ethics in Wittgenstein’s later writings

4 May 14.00-15.00, MeST Seminar with Professor Janelle Taylor

Past seminars

Follow this link to view past seminars at MeST

For a complete list of publications, research outputs, and activities for MeST members follow this link.