CRISPR/Cas has the potential to revolutionize medicine, agriculture, and biology. Understanding the trajectory of CRISPR research, how it is influenced and who pays for it, is an essential research policy question. We use a combination of methods to map, via quantitative content analysis of CRISPR papers, the research funding profile of major government agencies and organizations philanthropic, and the networks involved in supporting key stages of high-influence research, namely basic biological research and technological development. The results of the content analysis show how the research supported by the main US government agencies focus both on the study of CRISPR as a biological phenomenon and on its technological development and use as a biomedical research tool. US philanthropic organizations with the exception of HHMI, tend, by contrast, to specialize in funding CRISPR as a genome editing technology. We present a model of co-funding networks at the two most prominent institutions for CRISPR/Cas research, the University of California and the Harvard/MIT/Broad Institute, to illuminate how philanthropic organizations have articulated with government agencies to co-finance the discovery and development of CRISPR/Cas. Our results raise fundamental questions about the role of the state and the influence of philanthropy over the trajectory of transformative technologies.
翻译:CRISPR/Cas具有使医学、农业和生物学革命化的潜力。了解CRISPR研究的轨迹、它受到何种影响和谁为它付费,这是一个重要的研究政策问题。我们采用多种方法,通过对CRISPR文件的定量内容分析,绘制主要政府机构和组织慈善团体的研究供资概况,以及参与支持高影响研究关键阶段,即基础生物研究和技术发展的网络。内容分析结果显示,美国主要政府机构所支持的研究如何既注重研究CRISPR作为一种生物现象的研究,又注重其技术发展和作为生物医学研究工具的使用。美国慈善组织,除HHHMI之外,往往专门为CRISPR作为基因编辑技术提供资金。我们向CRISPR/Cas研究的两个最著名机构,即加利福尼亚大学和哈佛/麻省理学/布罗德研究所,提出了一个共同资助网络的模式,以说明慈善组织如何与政府机构一道为CRISPR/Cas改革性技术的发现和开发提供资金。我们的成果提出了关于国家作用和改革性研究过程的影响的基本问题。