Welcome to the Wexler Lab!
The Wexler Lab is located in the Department of Medical Ethics & Health Policy at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. Our research explores the ethical, legal, and social implications of emerging health technologies. We are mostly focused on neurotechnology and neuroscience; other areas of interest include genetic therapies, do-it-yourself (DIY) medicine, citizen science, and direct-to-consumer (DTC) health products.
Our approach is pragmatic: we focus on studying issues with immediate practical relevance, with an ambition to inform policy. Our approach is also empirical: rather than speculate about how technologies may change our world, we gather data to understand how technologies are changing our world, and in particular, how they are disrupting traditional models of science and medicine. To that end, we rely heavily on sociological tools and qualitative methods, such as interviews, surveys, ethnography, and content analyses; we also conduct ethical and policy analyses.