La circulación del conocimiento y el primer programa de genética y radiobiología en México

Resumen

Knowledge circulation and the first Mexican genetics and radiology program

This work explores the circulation of people, knowledge and medical genetics practices in Mexico in the 1960s, when the Genetics and Radiobiology Program (Programa de Genética y Radiobiología) was established within the National Commission of Nuclear Energy (Comisión Nacional de Energía Nuclear). This was the work of the Mexican physician-turned-geneticist Alfonso León de Garay, who returned to Mexico in 1959 after having spent two years at the Galton Laboratory of the University College, London, under the supervision of the Lionel Penrose. Due to his studies in England, and thanks to the support of Mexican as well as foreign institutions, de Garay belonged to the international collaborative network where biomedical practices and techniques were being developed and standardized during the radical reform of human genetics in the 1960s. This paper explores the pioneering work of de Garay and the program’s fundamental lines of research, namely, population genetics, cytogenetics, and the study of the mutagenic effects to different emission sources of radiation. This is intended to show how the program was developed through a dialogue between the local context, concerned with national issues and a transnational orientation, established to respond to the needs for knowledge, practices, objects and people to circulate through collaborative networks. The group formed in de Garay’s program contributed significantly to the establishment of genetic knowledge and the circulation and stabilization of their practices.

Key words. Circulation of knowledge, human genetics, medical genetics, Alfonso León de Garay, Genetics and Radiobiology Program, National Commission of Nuclear Energy.