MRC Studentship: Social Science Research Group, University of Leicester
Medical School
The Social Science Research Group at the Department for Health Sciences,
University of Leicester has a three-year Medical Research Council PhD
studentship available to start in the 2008/9 academic year. The project
will involve conducting an ethnographic study of organisational, social,
and professional barriers to harmonising cancer tissue banks for research.
A brief outline of the project is given at the end of this advertisement.
We are seeking applications from individuals who have a sound background
in the social sciences (ideally medical sociology or social studies of
science, though other disciplines will be considered) or who have a sound
background in a relevant clinical area (e.g. cancer nursing) or scientific
background (e.g. biological sciences) and have insight into social science
method and theory. Candidates will ideally be educated to MSc level. This
PhD will be very attractive to those wishing to pursue a career in social
science applied to health and science.
The studentship will be under the supervision of Professor Mary Dixon-
Woods, and will involve collaboration with researchers in and outside
Leicester, thus ensuring a rich research environment at the interface of
social science, clinical practice, and the life sciences.
This studentship will cover full fees for UK/EU students, a research
training support grant and conference allowance, and a basic stipend of
£12,940 per annum. The studentship is available to candidates who can
demonstrate a relevant connection to the United Kingdom.
For informal discussion, please contact Mary Dixon-Woods: [log in to unmask];
tel +441162297262
http://www2.le.ac.uk/departments/health-sciences/extranet/resources-for-
staff/staff-profiles/staff-member-2/mary-dixon-woods-1
Applicants should send a statement of interest (no more than 1 page) and a
CV with details of two referees to:
Professor Mary Dixon-Woods
Social Science Research Group
Department of Health Sciences
2nd Floor, Adrian Building,
University of Leicester,
University Road,
Leicester LE1 7RH
The closing date for applications is Friday 1 August 2008.
Project outline:
Many cancers are individually rare and large numbers of samples may be
required in order to obtain meaningful results. Thus collections of human
material, known as tissue or tumour banks, have become an increasingly
important way of assembling adequate material for high quality research.
Tissue banks have several advantages for researchers, allowing research to
be carried out which would be impossible using patients recruited from a
single institution. Increasingly, efforts are focusing on how to harmonise
tissue banks in order to produce common standards for the custodianship of
the samples, ensure uniformity of quality and information, and facilitate
exchange between researchers, institutions, and different countries.
Achieving these aspirations for harmonisation will, however, very much
depend on what happens at the "sharp end" of practice, which may be a long
way from where policies, procedures, and rules are devised. Any attempts
to harmonise cancer biobanks will need to engage with potentially very
challenging and complex social and organisational issues. Although most
attention in the literature so far has focused on the issues raised by
ethical issues at the patient level such as consent (and what kind of
consent), and on incompatibilities between regulatory regimes in different
countries, it is likely that many of the barriers to harmonisation will
function at an organisational, social and professional level. For
example, collection and storage of tissue samples for research involves a
whole series of logistical problems that must be overcome by hospitals,
teams and individuals who may not recognise the value or have any
incentive to engage. Allowing others to access collected tissue is a form
of collective action in the interests of the public good that raises
important, but much neglected, questions about trust and cooperation,
while many technical issues around harmonisation may be simple in
technical terms but be socially difficult to resolve. This project will
aim to identify and characterise organisational, social and professional
barriers and facilitators to harmonisation of cancer tissue banking.
The PhD student will conduct a critical review of the literature on
harmonisation of cancer tissue banks, and will use ethnographic methods
(including observations and interviews in pathology laboratories, hospital
wards, and elsewhere) to identify and characterise organisational and
professional barriers to harmonization of cancer tissue banks. Though it
clearly has practical application, the research will aim to take a
theoretically sophisticated approach, drawing on theory from the sociology
of science as well wider influences.
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