I am a researcher at the NMBU Centre for Applied Philosophy of Science. Together with Rani L. Anjum I carry on the project CauseHealth Risk and Safety , financed by the WHO collaborating Uppsala Monitoring Centre (UMC) for global drug safety. I have a multi-disciplinary background that includes Pharmacy (MSc), Biology (PhD) and Theory of Science (post-doctoral experience and collaborative research). My research focuses on environmental risk and biosafety (especially in relation to agricultural biotechnology and prescription drugs) both from a practical, methodological and philosophical perspective. I am particularly interested in re-discussing the theoretical premises of toxicology and risk assessment. In line with this, I work also with expert disagreement, and I analyse the influence of philosophical basic assumptions in evidence production and evaluation.
See also my personal webpage: elenarocca76.wordpress.com
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Areas of work
- Theory of Science
- Methodology in Pharmacovigilance
- Methodology in Environmental Risk Assessment
- Ecotoxicology
- Pharmacy
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Publications
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS:
Rocca, E., Copeland, S., Edwards, I.R. (2019). Pharmacovigilance as scientific discovery: an argument for trans-disciplinarity. Drug Safety, DOI:https://doi.org/10.1007/s40264-019-00826-1
Andersen, F., Anjum, R.L. and Rocca, E. (2019). Philosophical BIAS is the one bias that science cannot avoid. eLife, 8:e44929 DOI: 10.7554/eLife.44929
Rocca, E. and Anjum, R.L. (2019). Why causal evidencing of risk fails. An example from oil contamination. Ethics, Policy & Environment, 22:2, 197-213. Read online.
Anjum, L.R. and Rocca, E. (2018). From ideal to real risk:philosophy of causation meets risk analysis. Risk Analysis. Read online ahead of publication: https://doi.org/10.1111/risa.13187
Rocca, E. The judgments that evidence-based medicine adopts. (2018) Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/jep.12994
Rocca, E., Andersen, F. (2017). How biological background assumptions influence scientific risk evaluation of stacked genetically modified plants: an analysis of research hypotheses and argumentations. Life Sciences, Society and Policy; DOI 10.1186/s40504-017-0057-7. Read online.
Rocca, E. (2017). Bridging the Boundaries between Scientists and Clinicians – Mechanistic Hypotheses and Patient Stories in Risk Assessment of Drugs. Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice, 23, 114-120.
Anjum, R.L., Copeland, S., Mumford, S. and Rocca, E. (2017). “CauseHealth: integrating philosophical perspectives into person-centered healthcare,” European Journal for Person Centered Healthcare 3, 427-430 (Editorial)
Andreassen, M., Rocca, E., Bøhn, T., Wikmark, O.G., van den Berg, J., Løvik, M., Traavik, T. and Nygaard, U.C. (2015). Humoral and cellular immune responses in mice after airway administration of Bacillus thuringiensis Cry1Ab and MON810 cry1Ab-transgenic maize. Food and Agricultural Immunology, 26, 521-537.
Ragancokova, D.*, Rocca, E.*, Oonk, A.M., Schulz, H., Rohde, E., Bednarsch, J., Feenstra, I., Pennings, R.J., Wende, H. and Garratt, A.N. (2014) TSHZ1-Dependent Gene Regulation is Essential for Olfactory Bulb Development and Olfaction. The Journal of Clinical Investigation, 124, 1214-1227. (* shared first authorship)
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Projects & research
Projects
CauseHealth bring together philosophers, medical researchers and practitioners to address a major challenge: how to understand causation in health sciences.
Areas of research
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Other
Selected Academic Presentations
“Causation, Complexity and Evidence in Health Sciences” (with Rani Anjum) at the Uppsala Monitoring Center 40th Anniversary Celebration held at the WHO Uppsala Monitory Center, May 17, 2018. Read Handout.
“Guidelines and the evidence of mechanism: looking for a missing link” at The Guideline Challenge: Philosophy, Practice, Policy conference, held by the CauseHealth group in Oxford, UK, October 10, 2017. Listen to podcast.
“‘The airbag problem’ in risk assessment: how mechanistic knowledge influences the evaluation of new evidence” at the Mechanisms in Medicine conference, held by the Univesity of Kent, Canterbury, July 4, 2017. Listen to podcast.
“Post Market Risk Assessment of Drugs as a Way to Uncover Causal Mechanisms” (with Rani Anjum) at the conference Drug safety, probabilistic causal assessment, and evidence synthesis, held at the Center for Mathematical Philosophy, Munich, January 28, 2017. Read handout.
“Same Evidence, Different Assessment: Role of Primary Suppositions in the Scientific Discernment of Risk” (with Fredrik Andersen) at Descartes Lectures 2016, held at the University of Tilburg, September 6, 2016. Read handout.
“Pollen From Genetically Modified Bt Maize Does Not Promote Allergic Responses In Mice” (with Monica Andereassen et al) at the Annual meeting of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology, held in Atlanta, USA, February 2014. Read abstract.
“Of Mice And Men: Do Animal Models Inform Us About Human Conditions?” (with Fredrik Andersen), at the Philosophy of Science Forum, UMB, Ås, December 12, 2013. Abstract and podcast.