Biomaterials—or substances designed to interact with living tissues without stimulating an immune response—gather tissue culture technologies and regeneration research together. In doing so, these man-made materials tether the technological capacity to manipulate and modify living matter outside of bodies to the longstanding ambition in biology to comprehend, and possibly conduct, the physiological capacity of some organisms to repair or to restore themselves following injury or disease. Drawing upon participant-observation with life and material scientists in Dresden, Germany, this article presents a case of an ongoing collaboration between a neuro-regeneration laboratory researching Alzheimer’s disease and a biomaterials institute fabricating novel materials for tissue engineering. Their efforts illustrate how the current incorporation of biomaterials into experimentation on the biology of regeneration is reconfiguring previously established relations among life forms: relations within, between, and beyond the bodily bounds of organisms. In attending to the new relationships being forged between the biological and chemical sciences, their technologies for manipulating living matter, and their evolving conceptions of life, I argue for an anthropological approach to life and science inter vivos—one conceived in the relations between laboratories, disciplines, and experimental forms of both embodied and disembodied life.

生物材料-或旨在与活组织相互作用而不刺激免疫反应的物质-一起收集组织培养技术和再生研究。通过这样做，这些人造材料将操纵和改变体外生物的技术能力束缚在生物学的长期雄心壮志中，以理解并可能实现某些生物的生理能力，使其在受伤或受伤后得以修复或恢复自身。疾病。借鉴德国德累斯顿的生命和材料科学家的参与者观察，本文介绍了一个研究阿尔茨海默氏病的神经再生实验室与一家为组织工程制造新型材料的生物材料研究所之间正在进行的合作案例。他们的努力表明，目前将生物材料纳入再生生物学实验是如何重新构造先前建立的生命形式之间的关系：生物体内部，内部和外部的关系。在关注生物科学和化学科学，其用于处理生物的技术以及它们不断发展的生命概念之间建立的新关系时，我主张采用一种人类学的方法来研究生命与科学的跨生物体，这是实验室之间的关系中所构想的，体现和不体现生活的学科和实验形式。