A01=Natalie B. Aviles
administrative bureaucracy
American political development
Author_Natalie B. Aviles
biomedical innovation
biomedical research policy
cancer
Category=JHB
Category=JPQB
Category=MBN
Category=MBQ
cultural sociology
eq_bestseller
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
federal research institutes
innovation
mission-oriented science
oncogenes
organizational sociology
public-private partnership
scientific policy
translational research
vaccines
viruses
Product details
- ISBN 9780231196697
- Dimensions: 156 x 235mm
- Publication Date: 23 Jan 2024
- Publisher: Columbia University Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
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In American politics, medical innovation is often considered the domain of the private sector. Yet some of the most significant scientific and health breakthroughs of the past century have emerged from government research institutes. The U.S. National Cancer Institute (NCI) is tasked with both understanding and eradicating cancer—and its researchers have developed a surprising expertise in virus research and vaccine development.
An Ungovernable Foe examines seventy years of federally funded scientific breakthroughs in the laboratories of the NCI to shed new light on how bureaucratic organizations nurture innovation. Natalie B. Aviles analyzes research and policy efforts around the search for a viral cause of leukemia in the 1960s, the discovery of HIV and the development of AIDS drugs in the 1980s, and the invention of the HPV vaccine in the 1990s. She argues that the NCI transformed generations of researchers into innovative public servants who have learned to balance their scientific and bureaucratic missions. These “scientist-bureaucrats” are simultaneously committed to conducting cutting-edge research and stewarding the nation’s investment in cancer research, and as a result they have developed an unparalleled expertise. Aviles demonstrates how the interplay of science, politics, and administration shaped the NCI into a mission-oriented agency that enabled significant breakthroughs in cancer research—and in the process, she shows how organizational cultures indelibly stamp scientific work.
An Ungovernable Foe examines seventy years of federally funded scientific breakthroughs in the laboratories of the NCI to shed new light on how bureaucratic organizations nurture innovation. Natalie B. Aviles analyzes research and policy efforts around the search for a viral cause of leukemia in the 1960s, the discovery of HIV and the development of AIDS drugs in the 1980s, and the invention of the HPV vaccine in the 1990s. She argues that the NCI transformed generations of researchers into innovative public servants who have learned to balance their scientific and bureaucratic missions. These “scientist-bureaucrats” are simultaneously committed to conducting cutting-edge research and stewarding the nation’s investment in cancer research, and as a result they have developed an unparalleled expertise. Aviles demonstrates how the interplay of science, politics, and administration shaped the NCI into a mission-oriented agency that enabled significant breakthroughs in cancer research—and in the process, she shows how organizational cultures indelibly stamp scientific work.
Natalie B. Aviles is an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Virginia.
