MIT’s Little Devices Lab

Establishing a fair and ethical approach to obtaining samples for research, especially during outbreaks and within vulnerable communities, is essential.

The policy lab within MIT’s Little Devices Lab researches different issues pertaining to bioethics, safety, and the usage of different biospecimens. Examining how human tissues and samples are used in research is essential in maintaining ethical and safe practices, especially during a pandemic. Throughout the summer, undergraduate researchers conducted remote research with the policy lab, seeking to find more information on a wide variety of subjects, with a specific focus on taking blood and tissue samples during disease outbreaks.

One specific research project conducted by UROP students in the Little Devices Lab regarded looking into blood samples and blood banks around the world. Each of our bodies hold and utilize blood for the entirety of our lives, which makes it an extremely valuable substance in medicine and scientific research applications. The UROP students looked to different periods of time where blood samples proved to be particularly valuable-- during times of disease outbreaks. Through literature searches, looking at news sources, and other methods, students found that during these outbreaks the value of blood is significantly increased. But this is also when the ethics of transferring blood from the patient to the science world becomes more questionable. Recently with Coronavirus (COVID-19), companies sold the blood containing antibodies of recovered patients for $40,000 per milliliter, showcasing the commercialization of samples to an extreme extent (1). Similarly, during the Ebola crisis in Africa, samples were taken from West Africa and distributed to different labs around the world. These samples certainly held a lot of value to researchers investigating the disease. However, researchers in the United States, France, and South Africa refused to disclose the number of samples they held, and restricted access to local scientists in Africa. Arising from this is the question: who do the samples actually belong to? With the blood samples, there was no consent given, and the samples could be tied to clinical or personal data. In Liberia specifically, the US took all of the blood samples for foreign research, leaving the citizens with nothing to benefit from (2). As the Little Devices Lab undergraduate researcher Alexandra Wolf said:

“Companies who sell bio specimens at such high profits are often profiting of the back of individuals who were unaware of the importance of the sample/bio specimens that they had. Often, these individuals are low income, minorities, or from otherwise disadvantaged populations and are being taken advantage of by large corporations. In a system in which the corporations already have the power in terms of treatment and medicine, they are leveraging that power for further profits”.

However, it is widely acknowledged that these samples are vital to research and curing of diseases. Without these samples, the world would be left without the ability to advance science and medicine, especially in critical times. Establishing a fair and ethical approach to obtaining samples for research, especially during outbreaks and within vulnerable communities, is essential. There is a definitive need for a balance between the rights of patients and the advances that can be made with research. Without one another, neither entity can succeed.

— Tatum Wilhelm