A Tale of Two Genome Institutes: Qualitative Networks, Charismatic Voice, and R&D strategies: Juxtaposing GIS Biopolis and BGI

Abstract

The journalistic stereotypes -- of BGI, the world’s largest sequencing center, as a Chinese state venture, and of Singapore’s GIS as a neoliberal platform -- are inverted. Methodologically, by looking at qualitative networks, charismatic leaders, and research strategies, this essay proposes a finer grained, meso-level, ethnographic analysis that allows for multi-scalar tracking, and juxtaposition as a generator of comparative insights. It deploys a social hieroglyphic analysis of the leaders of BGI, and an updated account of the post-2010 “industrial re-alignment” of GIS, to highlight the role of cross-national networks in the construction of what are usually seen as national science projects, as well as the roles of mixed state and market strategies, and mixed clinical, basic science, biotech, and big pharma protocols and platforms of the contemporary life sciences. It pays particular attention to the small worlds of the scientific republic and the charismatic voice of leaders forging new institutional arrangements.