Patzke+Shifts+Sign+Systems

SHIFTS IN SIGN SYSTEMS

Genetic sequences might be considered a malleable technology, precisely because they rely on conflicting metaphors to describe composition, utility and functionality. In historical and social analyses of genetics, the rhetorical link between the chemical composition of DNA and the metaphorical label of “information” has been a source of in depth inquiry. Lily Kay[1], Evelyn Fox Keller[2], and Judith Roof[3] have separately conducted thorough analyses of this loaded metaphor. Although each author approaches the subject from a different theoretical stance, they come to similar conclusions: during the development of molecular biology in the early half of this past century, the vernacular of cybernetics and information theory was adopted by biologists in part to account for theories of heredity. As these theories manifested in laboratory research and experimentation, the appropriated language of cybernetics became the established disciplinary language of genetics. Alternatively described as information or as chemical compositions, genetics requires the use of multiple metaphors to convey both the value and the utility of gene sequences. Words like “prediction”, “reception”, and “information” took on new meanings as they were applied to observations of biological functions. Furthermore, in what Keller calls //gene talk//, as the discourse of genetics spread to other disciplines like the law, industry, policy, etc//,// the concept of genetics expanded from a scientific discipline to a value system.//[4]// //Gene talk// represents the “undeniably powerful tool of persuasion, useful not only in promoting research agendas and securing funding but also in marketing the products of a rapidly expanding biotech industry” (Keller (2002), 10). Michael Morange[5] calls this genetic determinism, in which cultural norms of heritage and behavior are shaped by interpretations of genetic influence. In utilizing //gene talk// the concept of a gene is seen as a clear causal agent, composing all aspects of life. While intellectual property may be a late edition to the discourse of understanding of how genes functions, it continues a trajectory in genetics of applying metaphors to understand and interpret functionality.

As diverse stakeholders lay claim to //what// a genetic sequence is, a variety of conflicting definitions abound. Roof posits that the narrative and metaphoric components of DNA rhetoric “align with concepts that underwrite our assumptions about science, narrative, and commodity culture…. [and] shares in and reflects larger cultural ideas” (Roof, 14). The metaphors used to describe genetics reveal the culturally situated value genes hold. In //AMP//, the descriptions of chemical compositions of genes are used to identify the utility of gene sequences as diagnostic tools. This utility is a determining factor in granting patent licenses, and so shifts the value of genes from sequences of DNA to tools used in diagnosis. As a commodity, genetic sequences represent an economic resource that is licensed (through patenting) and sold through medical testing.

Yet, this information metaphor – the value of gene sequences to code for specific traits both in and out of the body (or the laboratory) – is incommensurable with both established patenting practices and judicial precedent. The evaluation of metaphors reveals the not-so-hidden agendas of multiple stakeholders, including the legal constructions of “intellectual property” and innovation rhetoric supported by the biotech industry. In //AMP//, the patenting of genetic sequences is more than just the protection of innovative processes and discoveries in industrial manufacturing. Gene patenting represents the creation of new understandings of genetics as intangible property.

[1] Kay, Lily. //Who wrote the book of life?: A history of the genetic code//. Stanford University Press, 2000. [2] Keller, Evelyn Fox. //Refiguring life: Metaphors of twentieth-century biology//. Columbia University Press, 1995. [3] Roof, Judith. //The poetics of DNA//. Vol. 2. University of Minnesota Press, 2007. [4] Keller, Evelyn Fox, and Evelyn Fox Keller. //The century of the gene//. Harvard University Press, 2002. [5] Morange, Michel. //The misunderstood gene//. Harvard University Press, 2001.