Paper short abstract:

Presents a genealogy of the development of human cancer viruses as “administrative objects” at the US National Cancer institute, emphasizing the important role of management theories and technologies in constituting these viruses as objects, and their influence on the growth of cancer research.

Paper long abstract:

In 1964, the US National Cancer Institute established the Special Virus Leukemia Program (SVLP), a program that aggressively sought to develop a cancer vaccine using contracts to manage research in molecular biology and virology, spending nearly a billion dollars during the 1960s and 1970s. Remarkably, however, the object of the SVLP—a human leukemia virus—was not even known to exist. The SVLP represented a milestone for both cancer virus research and the development of 'big biomedicine,' presaging the future-based innovation schemes of the biotechnology industry by decades. 

The paper develops the analytic concept of "administrative objects" through a genealogy of the SVLP. This concept extends work by scholars of anticipation, futurity, and bureaucracy to argue that future-oriented modes of governance may be generative of scientific knowledge in themselves. Cancer viruses stood at a juncture of the crisis atmosphere stoked by childhood disease advocacy and the articulation of Cold War research and development strategies. This atmosphere redefined the central question as one of not if human cancer viruses existed but when a human cancer vaccine would be developed.  In focusing on urgency and time, these forces fashioned leukemia viruses as objects for administration and management before they were recognized as scientific objects. These administrative frameworks gave planners a vocabulary to operate within future discoveries rather than current scientific knowledge about leukemia viruses. While this envisioned future may not have come to pass, the infrastructure built upon these administrative objects played a vital role in the growth of the molecular sciences.