Sergei Shevchenko, MSc in Biology and PhD in Philosophy of Science, is a postdoctoral fellow at Ruhr University Bochum. His research interests bridge the history and philosophy of life sciences with bioethics.
Currently, his work focuses on past and present studies of genetic and phenotypic instability in biological agents, as well as methods for predicting and managing this instability. This topic connects modern approaches to organism variability, cancer models, and studies of pathogen emergence with historical narratives about political struggles over the authority to govern the living systems. The history of striving to manage unstable biological agents forms the core of his book Hope: Found and Invented (2020, in Russian), which explores the development of phage therapy in the Soviet Union during the 1920s–1940s. In bioethics, his interests revolve around the topics of ethical exceptionalism and issues of irreversibility in the regulation of biomedical technologies.

Vita

• 2024-: Postdoctoral Fellow, Ruhr University Bochum
• 2024: Visiting Scholar, Institute of History and Philosophy of Science and Technology, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne
• 2023-2024: Guest Researcher, Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory, University of Belgrade
• 2021-2022: Expert (part-time), Center for Law and Bioethics in the Field of Genomic Research, Kutafin Moscow State Law University
• 2019-2022: Researcher, Department of Bioethics, RAS Institute of Philosophy
• 2019: PhD in Philosophy, RAS Institute of Philosophy, Dissertation: ‘Personalized Medicine: Philosophical and Methodological Analyses’
• 2016-2019: Junior Researcher, Department of Bioethics, RAS Institute of Philosophy
• 2016-2017: Laboratory Assistant (part-time), Gene Expression Regulation in Development Lab, RAS Institute of Gene Biology
• 2015-2021: Lecturer (part-time), Department of Bioethics, Pirogov Russian National Research Medical University
• 2010: M.Sc. in Biology, Kostanay State University

Publications

Books

• Hope: Found and Invented. Moscow, Progress-Tradition, 2020

Journal articles

• Irreversibility of Transformative Experience as a Criterion for Exceptionalism. In The American Journal of Bioethics (Co-author: Sofya Lavrentyeva, 2025) Link
• Temporal Aspects of Epistemic Injustice: The Case of Patients with Drug Dependence. In Journal of Bioethical Inquiry (Co-author: Alexey Zhavoronkov, 2025) Link
• (Re)producing Identities: The Assumptions in (non)Identity-Affecting Debates. In Humana.Mente Journal of Philosophical Studies (Co-authors: Oliver Feeney and Vojin Rakić, 2024) Link
• The Role of Exceptionalism in the Evolution of Bioethical Regulation. In Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics (Co-author: Alexey Zhavoronkov, 2023) Link
• Association of uncoupling protein (Ucp) gene polymorphisms with cardiometabolic diseases. In Molecular medicine (Co-authors: Anna E. Pravednikova, Victor V. Kerchev, Manana R. Link

Talks