The Future of the Model Organism Repertoire

This talk considers two recent and novel uses of simpler model organisms (such as zebrafish, water fleas, and nematodes) in contemporary life science research: as an indicator species in predictive toxicology and as a substitute for rodents and other mammals in translational biomedical research associated with new efforts to foster new approach methodologies (NAMs). Leonelli (and Ankeny) explore the ways in which the model organism repertoire is evolving in association with these domains, including the financial, sociocultural, political, technological, and experimental factors involved in their use. They conclude by showing how these new deployments and the associated model organism repertoire are impacting the epistemic functions of such entities within biology, including what they are taken to represent and how they continue to simultaneously serve as material objects found in nature and constructed for laboratory use.