Research within KHeaT

The research group “Life, Innovation, Health, and Technology”, headed by Coenen, deals with the ever deeper and more extensive technical interventions in the human body and in non-human life, in tendencies toward the merging of humans and technology, but also in continuing technological advances in everyday and working life. Fields such as neurotechnology, prosthetics, synthetic biology, and increasingly technical (often digital) approaches to health are changing the images of the human being, understandings of life, professional fields, and health care. The convergence of biology and information technology, the bio-info-nexus, plays a central role here. Health technologies are a key topic of the group. Coenen has worked on health technologies since the 2000s, and since the 2010s often with a focus on neurotechnology, including non-medical technologies. “Red” biotechnology and additive manufacturing for medical and biological applications are among his further topics of research. Ethical and a wide range of societal aspects of health technology fields play a key role in his work, including as editor-in-chief of the journal ‘NanoEthics: Studies of New and Emerging Technologies’.