It turns out that genetic mutations are far more common and difficult to interpret than experts anticipated. But what will this mean as we move into an era of genomic or ‘precision’ medicine? This talk will show how research on people with mutations like the 22q11.2 microdeletion or the FMR1 premutation can destabilize longstanding modes of measuring, categorizing and managing human difference. Today, finding a genetic mutation can recast the very boundary between the normal and pathological and radically alter the way a patient is evaluated and treated.

Dr. Daniel Navon is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of California, San Diego. His research focuses on the social studies of science and medicine, comparative-historical sociology and social theory. This talk draws on his book, Mobilizing Mutations: New kinds of people in genetics and patient advocacy, which will be published next year with University of Chicago Press. 

This event is sponsored by the EpiDaPo Laboratory, a collaboration of UCLA and CNRS,
and the Insitute for Society and Genetics