Out of Time: Biomedicine, Endotoxin Detection, and the Plight of the Horseshoe Crab - Project Summary
This project is to write a book-length account of the biomedical use of American horseshoe
crabs (Limulus polyphemus) to produce Limulus Amebocyte Lysate (LAL) – a compound used
to detect the presence of potentially deadly toxins in all intravenous drugs, vaccines, and
medical devices and a vital part of global public health infrastructure. This monograph will
explore the history of LAL, its global implications, and the contemporary biopolitics around crab
conservation and synthetic replacements for LAL in the pharmaceutical industry. The book’s
contribution to health and medicine will be to shed light on a largely unknown component of
public safety, and to aid in the development of theoretical frameworks for understanding the
complexities of policymaking around drug and medical device manufacture – particularly when
those policies may be in tension with other societal goals, such as environmental protection.
No full-length monograph of the LAL industry currently exists, and the proposed book aims to be
a contribution and model for cross-disciplinary, humanities-based, and policy-relevant work in
analyzing biomedical infrastructures by deepening our understanding of the role of endotoxin
detection in public health. More broadly, this project’s approach will lend itself to understanding
a wide range of public health issues in which diverse regulatory agencies and stakeholder
groups are involved. A significant innovation of this project is to conceptualizes the nexus of
human and animal health as a site where biomedicine can both rely upon, and be in tension
with, conservation.
The proposed book will build upon and contribute to a range of historiography in American
medicine, including histories of pharmaceutical development and regulation, as well as global
histories of medicine and environmental history. In addition, by collecting published and
unpublished documentation and conducting stakeholder interviews, the book will analyze the
contemporary regulatory landscape in which LAL, its proposed synthetic replacements, and
other biomedical innovations are currently being assessed. This project will appeal to academic
scholars, stakeholders, and broad audiences interested in biomedicine and public health.
