Alberto Aparicio, PhDAssistant Professor

Alberto Aparicio is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Bioethics and Health Humanities. He completed postdoctoral fellowships at the Global Observatory for Genome Editing, Harvard University, and the Alexander von Humboldt Biological Resources Research Institute in Colombia. Dr. Aparicio received his PhD in Science and Technology Studies from University College London, and his MPhil in Technology Policy from Cambridge University. 

At UTMB, Dr. Aparicio develops a research program examining “limit-making” and the establishment of ethical boundaries within the life sciences. His work also encompasses transformations in knowledge production and the political economy of biomedicine. As part of this program, he studies the “longevity biotechnology” community, which seeks to develop interventions to slow aging, rejuvenate the body, or extend human lifespan. He examines the construction of “healthy aging” as a novel paradigm in biomedicine that reflects broader transformations in life sciences research and regulation, along with novel subjectivities and configurations of state-science-society relationships. For the past two years, he has conducted fieldwork in this area, attending and speaking at major longevity biotechnology conferences and policy-related events—becoming a recognized figure in science-society relations and the ethics of longevity.

Dr. Aparicio’s previous research projects have addressed the ethics of safety-by-design and the modification of synthetic microorganisms for environmental release, human-assisted reproduction and the demarcation between legitimate and illegitimate human modification, and the entanglement of biodiversity, innovation, and state-building in the bioeconomy. His doctoral research at UCL explored the construction of biocontainment in synthetic biology as a form of responsibility and governance, along with design principles of safety through the unnaturalness of synthetic biological systems.