Scientific MOOCs follower. Author of Airpocalypse, a techno-medical thriller (Out Summer 2017)


Welcome to the digital era of biology (and to this modest blog I started in early 2005).

To cure many diseases, like cancer or cystic fibrosis, we will need to target genes (mutations, for ex.), not organs! I am convinced that the future of replacement medicine (organ transplant) is genomics (the science of the human genome). In 10 years we will be replacing (modifying) genes; not organs!


Anticipating the $100 genome era and the P4™ medicine revolution. P4 Medicine (Predictive, Personalized, Preventive, & Participatory): Catalyzing a Revolution from Reactive to Proactive Medicine.


I am an early adopter of scientific MOOCs. I've earned myself four MIT digital diplomas: 7.00x, 7.28x1, 7.28.x2 and 7QBWx. Instructor of 7.00x: Eric Lander PhD.

Upcoming books: Airpocalypse, a medical thriller (action taking place in Beijing) 2017; Jesus CRISPR Superstar, a sci-fi -- French title: La Passion du CRISPR (2018).

I love Genomics. Would you rather donate your data, or... your vital organs? Imagine all the people sharing their data...

Audio files on this blog are Windows files ; if you have a Mac, you might want to use VLC (http://www.videolan.org) to read them.

Concernant les fichiers son ou audio (audio files) sur ce blog : ce sont des fichiers Windows ; pour les lire sur Mac, il faut les ouvrir avec VLC (http://www.videolan.org).


The Stuntman, the Nurse and the Little Girl: "The Fall", a stunning movie

Life at the hospital, when you get to see it (and imagine it) through the eyes of a five-year-old girl with a broken arm... Mind you, becoming a 5-year-old again might be a life saver (especially when you are a bedridden stuntman)!

The patient is a stuntman (with a broken leg and a broken heart), the nurse (or some vicious ambitious young actress) a gold digger, physicians turn out to be either a surrealist version of Darwin or some false-hearted lead actor in Hollywood...

Life, death, resurrection, everything happens in a hospital, or... in the fall of a stuntman in Hollywood.

A stunning movie, to say the least...

"Los Angeles,1915: stuntman Roy Walker (Lee Pace) is hospitalized, as he is bedridden and possibly paralyzed after a jump he took in his first film. He meets Alexandria (Catinca Untaru), a young Romanian-born patient in the hospital who is recovering from a broken arm, and begins to tell her a story about her namesake. Alexandria is told she has to leave, but Roy promises to tell her an epic tale if she returns the next day. The next morning, as Roy spins his tale of fantasy, Alexandria's imagination brings his characters to life. Roy's tale is about five heroes: a silent Indian warrior (Jeetu Verma), a muscular ex-slave named Otta Benga (Marcus Wesley), an Italian explosives expert called Luigi (Robin Smith), a surreal version of Darwin (Leo Bill) with a pet monkey, and a masked swashbuckling bandit. An evil ruler named Governor Odious[3] (Daniel Caltagirone) has committed an offense against each of the five, who all seek revenge.

"The 59 Countries That Are Most Prepared To Handle An Uncertain Future". Surprising!

HOMO DIGITUS

#GoogleGlass: "Googling Yourself Takes on a Whole New Meaning"


Artificial heart Carmat: is it working???

Just heard that blood cells are exploding within this artificial heart... Any feedback on the Carmat artificial heart, anyone?...

Je viens d'entendre dire que les cellules sanguines explosent à l'intérieur de ce cœur artificiel. Quelqu'un aurait-il des nouvelles concernant les essais cliniques "Carmat"?

Thx/Merci...

Capture and transmit clinical quality heart ECG data using your smart 
phone

Mobile phones and diagnostic devices are merging to provide quality 
clinical measurements from anywhere. Meet the AliveCor 
ECG, an iPhone accessory that will allow both physicians and patients to 
capture and transmit clinical quality heart ECG data using their smart 
phones. By seeing this video, you'll understand and recognize the opportunities and disruptive influences of exponentially growing technologies within medicine and healthcare, and you'll understand how many rapidly developing and converging fields affect the future of clinical practice and the biomedical industry...



http://www.alivecor.com
http://www.youtube.com/user/Alivecor

"The AliveCor Heart Monitor is available to medical professionals and patients in the U.S., U.K. and Ireland and health conscious individuals in the U.K. and Ireland to record, display, store, and transfer single-channel electrocardiogram (ECG) rhythms.

The device is FDA-cleared and CE-marked and currently available for sale in the US, UK and Ireland at AliveCor.com."

NOT AVAILABLE IN FRANCE... IN FRANCE WE HAVE THIS:

"Quand l'e-santé vous sauve la vie : lettre ouverte à la famille et aux amis d'Olivier Ferrand"

But for how long??...

Cyborg skin that gives humans enhanced perceptions and robots a sense of touch

"Cyberskin Will Give You Real-Life Spidey Sense"

"Recently developed cyberskin will one day give robots a sense of touch, and humans enhanced perception. When it does, we’ll need to be prepared for the ethical questions that come with it."

"Cyborg skin is closer to becoming reality than most of us realize, and it could change the way we interact with each other forever. Last month, a study describing lab-made plastic skin that can detect heat, pressure, and even light and sound through electronic sensors was PUBLISHED in the journal Nature."


The Death Of Brain Death

A cross-section of a brain-like clump of neural cells derived from human stem cells.
Madeline A. Lancaster
"Stem cells mimic human brain'Mini-brains' help researchers to study neurological diseases in living human tissue." Article by Helen Shen , 28 August 2013.

Nature: Brain tissue growing in the lab.
http://www.nature.com/news/stem-cells-mimic-human-brain-1.13617

Meet GINA!

Mind Control Works in Researchers' Experiment


The Open Source Future for Clinical Trials

Healthcare needs open source, it is the future of clinical trials. OpenSource.com

Informed Consent Goes Digital

"Who Moved My Cheese, I mean, my Genes?" Mindmap

http://www.mindmapart.com/who-moved-my-cheese-mind-map-thum-cheng-cheong/

Take good care of your gene called mTOR


"By lowering the expression of a single gene, researchers at the National Institutes of Health have extended the average lifespan of a group of mice by about 20 percent — the equivalent of raising the average human lifespan by 16 years, from 79 to 95. The research team targeted a gene called mTOR, which is involved in metabolism and energy balance, and may be connected with the increased lifespan associated with caloric restriction." (read more)

I hope that when my training session in genomics is over, I'll be able to make good use of this link:

http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=mTOR+gene

Need a kidney? There's an app for this. Besoin d'un rein ? Il existe une application pour cela (aux USA)


"Did you know that in the USA 500+ kidneys are wasted every year while 90000+ people wait on the list? We believe that we are can improve the system and are working towards it. In 2011, 4,720 people died while waiting for kidney transplants in the United States. And yet, as in each of the last five years, more than 2,600 kidneys were recovered from deceased donors and then discarded without being transplanted." (read more).

"If you cannot bring the organs to the patients, why not bring the people to the organs?"

 Organ Jet is the app that does the job...

Besoin d'un rein ? Il existe une application pour cela (aux USA) ... http://www.atelier.net/blog/2013/08/29/besoin-un-rein-existe-une-application_423554

Your opinion about 3D bioprinting (printing human stuff like skin and vital organs)

MOOCs or Campus? Or both?



A massive open online course (MOOC) is an online course aimed at large-scale interactive participation and open access via the web.

The Rage of Thrones Theory

What you might call "Rage of the Rings" should be called "Rage of Thrones" instead:

Sony and the human genome analysis


"In general, software patents are counter-productive, often used obstructively and get in the way of innovation. New Zealand has sided with companies such as the so-over-patent-disputes Google and the patents-what-patents Facebook in its quest for more freedom in innovation."

Music, Genomics, the "Copycat-Copyright" Dialectic and the Genome Mixing Console

 Live From The "My-Genes-Remix" Department

Wanna become the DJ of your genes? Fancy your own genes playing music at the mixing console? A digital genome mixing console, that is, playing the music (David Guetta remix?) of your genes...

Music: performing 38 songs with only 4 chords (E, B, C#m and A).
Genomics: Your DNA is one end result of 3 billion years worth of uninterrupted copying.

Can you decide which one it is? Plagiarism or Creation?

Well, maybe watching these cool videos will help you make up your mind...





DNA, the building block of life, contains the genetic code that informs so much of who we are. This code is written with four letters, each representing a different base. The four bases are adenine (A), which pairs with thymine (T), and cytosine (C), which pairs with guanine (G).

4 chords.
4 letters.

Congrats, you've just listened to the music of your genes!

Bazinga.






A Genome Mixing Console?? Cool!! Can't wait!

Working and reading

"100 Most Influential People in Healthcare"


How to read and understand a scientific paper: a guide for non-scientists

Following #DIYBio on Twitter


Bazinga

Instead of saying "hello" on the phone, now, I say... Bazinga.
Au lieu de dire "allo", maintenant au téléphone je dis Bazinga



I SELL IDEAS - 我 卖 概念










I ღ҉ღ Genomics

Fridge magnet found in Prague, Aug. 2013. Just added "I love Genomics" ;-)


Genomics: Google is my boss (and not French geneticist Axel Kahn)

The Human Race Is Dying: DNA Degeneration Would Eventually Lead To The Total Extinction Of Humanity

Pour une information de pointe sur la génomique, suivre le Genome Institute of Singapore ... et aussi les cours en ligne gratuits et ouverts à tous de Harvard et du MIT en génomique :


MITx: The Secret of Life, by Eric Lander (PhD)

"How Many Contemporary Medical Practices Are Worse Than Doing Nothing or Doing Less?"

"How many contemporary medical practices are not any better than or are worse than doing nothing or doing something else that is simpler or less expensive? This is an important question, given the negative repercussions for patients and the health care system of continuing to endorse futile, inefficient, expensive, or harmful interventions, tests, or management strategies."

Biohackers : les bricoleurs d'ADN

"Hacker" = bricoleur forcené, "white hat" et non "black hat"!

"Biohackers : les bricoleurs d'ADN"

Le Monde.fr | • Mis à jour le | Par

Microsoft Inc., Wireless Medicine and The "Pack Leader" Theory

Steve Ballmer

Genomics Pioneer: We Are a Software Driven Species. Super-organs: building body parts better than nature.

Genomics Pioneer: We Are a Software Driven Species, like all biology on the planet. If you change the software, you change the species.
This video is a bit funny on bunnies, but just check it out!
J. Craig Venter, the first scientist to sequence the human genome, describes the chemical and genetic basis of life as software. "Most people view themselves as static entities, not billions of reactions going on from constantly reading that software," he says.





"FANCY a liver that works a little harder? Synthetic DNA circuits inserted into human stem cells could soon allow us to build new organs with unprecedented precision and speed. The circuits can be designed on a computer and assembled from ready-made parts ordered online. The technique could prove an efficient way of making organs for transplant without the worry of rejection, and raises the tantalising possibility that it might one day be possible to upgrade the organs we were born with. Human cells have already been used to create a tiny liver and a set of neurons.

'At the moment, the aim is to normalise cells, but in future, enhancement has to be on the menu,' says Chris Mason, a professor of regenerative medicine at University College London, who wasn't involved in the work.
'Everything we have in our bodies is hardwired,' says synthetic biologist Patrick Guye at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, part of the team pioneering the new approach. Apart from egg and sperm cells, all our cells contain exactly the same genetic instructions. They develop into different kinds of cell because 'epigenetic' switches turn some genes on and others off. By hijacking this mechanism, we can rewind adult cells to an embryonic-like state and make them develop into different tissues.
To turn these induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells into a specific tissue type, they are typically placed in a soup of DNA and signalling molecules. These enter the cells and flick certain epigenetic switches. What gets turned on or off depends on the ingredients in the soup. 'The problem is that there are tens of thousands of these switches that all need to be set in the right way,' says Mason. Another hurdle is that all cells in the soup are influenced in the same way and grow into the same tissue type. But a piece of liver tissue, say, is not the same as a functioning liver. The issue is even more apparent with complex organs such as hearts, says Guye.
What would be more helpful is an instruction manual that each individual stem cell can follow during its development. And this is exactly what Guye's team has provided. They started by looking at what happens in neurons and liver cells during natural embryonic development – which genes are switched on and when. They then designed and built artificial DNA control circuits to reproduce this switching in iPS cells. The circuits are slotted together using a combination of standard DNA parts – such as sequences that code for different proteins – available from online repositories and newly synthesised genetic material. These circuits were then chemically inserted into thousands of iPS cells (Nucleic Acids Research, doi.org/m9d)."

Control from inside

 

"'You assemble it into one large logic circuit and put it into the cell,' Guye says. 'It's interfacing with the natural system. We're not replacing anything, we're putting a control layer on top.'

Once in the cell, the circuitry kicks into action. 'The idea is that the circuit is pretty much autonomous,' says Guye. It can measure activity – such as levels of gene expression in the cell – and react to it. When the circuit detects that an iPS cell has turned into a precursor cell, for example, it can initiate the next stage of development.
As yet unpublished results suggest that the technique is faster and more reliable than existing methods of creating tissues from iPS cells (see Programming a new liver). In one study, his team turned iPS cells into neurons in just four days with almost 100 per cent success. 'If true, it's incredibly rapid,' says Mason. 'Normally it takes weeks.'
Another advantage of Guye's approach is that it only requires cells from one person. 'You get an organ that really corresponds to an individual,' he says.
But before the technique can be used to grow organs for transplant, Guye's team needs to find a way to get rid of the artificial DNA once it has done its job. It currently lasts inside the cells for a few weeks, and is passed on when they replicate – it 'becomes physically part of the genome'. Although the artificial DNA is unlikely to cause any harm, people will have legitimate concerns about long-term implications, says Guye. One solution would be to build circuits out of messenger RNA, which would survive long enough to push the cells in one developmental direction and then degrade after a few days.
'We are overriding the natural programming with our gene circuit,' says Guye, who presented the work at the International Meeting on Synthetic Biology at Imperial College London earlier this month. 'The cells already have the knowledge. We are just helping them get on their way.' For many, however, the ideal is to create tissues and organs with added extras such as resistance to parasites (see 'Designer organs to order').
'This is what we are going to do,' says Mason, although he admits we're not there yet and the regulators certainly aren't. Takanori Takebe at Yokohama City University in Japan agrees. 'I think it is theoretically possible to improve the functions of generated organs,' says Takebe, whose group recently got three cell types to self-assemble into a tiny liver similar to the one Guye has made. Ethical discussions will be needed though, he adds.
'At the moment, it exceeds our knowledge,' says Guye. 'We would need to re-engineer much more than our gene circuit.' But in the long term, he thinks the limitations will be conceptual rather than technical. 'What type of new organ or function would one wish for?'
'At the moment, the aim is to normalise cells, but in future, enhancement has to be on the menu,' says Chris Mason, a professor of regenerative medicine at University College London, who wasn't involved in the work.

Oxford Journal Nucleic Acids Research - Rapid, modular and reliable construction of complex mammalian gene circuits
ABSTRACT Rapid, modular and reliable construction of complex mammalian gene circuits

We developed a framework for quick and reliable construction of complex gene circuits for genetically engineering mammalian cells. Our hierarchical framework is based on a novel nucleotide addressing system for defining the position of each part in an overall circuit. With this framework, we demonstrate construction of synthetic gene circuits of up to 64 kb in size comprising 11 transcription units and 33 basic parts. We show robust gene expression control of multiple transcription units by small molecule inducers in human cells with transient transfection and stable chromosomal integration of these circuits. This framework enables development of complex gene circuits for engineering mammalian cells with unprecedented speed, reliability and scalability and should have broad applicability in a variety of areas including mammalian cell fermentation, cell fate reprogramming and cell-based assays.

Organs enhanced with sensor or that release drugs on demand

In theory, he says, we can imagine creating a human organ for detecting magnetic fields – birds have such things, for example. But augmenting organs, rather than making entirely new ones, is within closer reach. Synthetic biology provides a rapidly increasing number of biological sensors that react to different stimuli. These could be inserted into tissues so that gene expression could be controlled by light alone, say, which may allow less invasive treatments.

People with brain disorders like Parkinson's, caused by the loss of nerve cells that produce dopamine, could benefit from neurons that release an extra hit. Growing 1000 more-potent brain cells instead of 100,000 normal cells would make cell therapies more affordable and quick to implement, says Chris Mason of University College London.

Other ideas suggested by researchers contacted by New Scientist include organs that can release drugs on demand, that are resistant to parasites or that break down toxins we can't deal with."

Source:  
"Super-organs: building body parts better than nature", 24 July 2013 by Douglas Heaven, Magazine issue 2927.
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21929274.100-superorgans-building-body-parts-better-than-nature.html?full=true#.Uhhlmz8Xfcw

"Super-organs: building body parts better than nature. "
http://nextbigfuture.com/2013/08/super-organs-building-body-parts-better.html

6 characters rebooting medicine and health: 0,1, A, C, G, T

 Joel Selanikio: The surprising seeds of a big-data revolution in healthcare

"Collecting global health data was an imperfect science: Workers tramped through villages to knock on doors and ask questions, wrote the answers on paper forms, then input the data -- and from this gappy information, countries would make huge decisions. Data geek Joel Selanikio talks through the sea change in collecting health data in the past decade -- starting with the Palm Pilot and Hotmail, and now moving into the cloud. (Filmed at TEDxAustin.) Dr. Joel Selanikio combines technology and data to help solve global health challenges."



http://storyofdigitalhealth.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/Digital_Health_Infographic.jpg


Transplant Cinderella

Monster High Ghoul Doll (Frankie Stein): "I'm a biomedical news junkie!"

Docteur Laurent Alexandre : "Je fais peur aux bourgeois"

Eh oui, l'Europe - moins le Royaume-Uni - va devenir un musée géant pour touristes Américains et Chinois (et Japonais ? et Indiens ?) ... Voilà que l'on pourrait difficilement qualifier de scoop ... Dans leur livre "Adrian, Humain 2.0", les auteurs Laurent Alexandre et David Angevin ne font que dire ce que ma famille et moi-même, qui vivons tous à l'étranger (USA et Asie et Australie) depuis un bon moment, savons depuis bien longtemps : l'Europe (moins le Royaume-Uni) dégringole de manière inéluctable, toutes les sociétés innovantes fuient ce territoire condamné à devenir le musée d'un autre âge, d'une autre civilisation, du Monde d'Hier, tombé en désuétude et que l'on vient voir pour se reposer et se distraire, comme on visiterait un parc à thème avant de retourner dans le vrai monde et la vraie vie. Un genre de Disneyland du 19ème siècle. Ce message, bien sûr, les Français refusent de l'entendre ... On rencontre beaucoup de Français à Dubaï, Singapour, en Californie ... Moins en Australie en ce moment car les sociétés informatique de Melbourne et autres grandes villes australiennes sous-traitent leur travail en Inde, auprès d'ingénieurs IT indiens ... Bientôt les informaticiens Australiens vont émigrer en Inde ... Saviez-vous que le nouveau boss de "Best Buy", l'équivalent américain de Darty, est un Français ? Quand on est Français et qu'on a de l'ambition (du cœur et de l'intelligence), on va faire son contrat de confiance à l'étranger. Mon frère, simple technicien, puis ingénieur, avait compris cela il y a ... 25 ans. Alors vous comprenez, je trouve étonnant que cela étonne Messieurs Alexandre et Angevin, cette histoire de musée géant ... Je vous assure qu'elle ne date pas d'hier ... elle a bien 20 ou 30 ans ... si si ... Glaçant ? Si vous le dites ... Comme on fait son lit, on se couche ... Bon moi ce que j'en dis ...


Here's why I'm glad I can be part of a (working) scientific network on Twitter

... and not chatting and spinning my life away on FB ;-)

Mapping Out Evolving Relationship Between Humans and Machines

Gartner's 2013 Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies Maps Out Evolving Relationship Between Humans and Machines

"3D Printing: The Next Technology Gold Rush"

3D Printing: The Next Technology Gold Rush – Future Factories and How to Capitalize on Distributed Manufacturing

Researchers Created Eggs and Sperm In The Laboratory

Stem cells: Egg engineers

In a technical tour de force, Japanese researchers created eggs and sperm in the laboratory. Now, scientists have to determine how to use those cells safely — and ethically.
New research suggests women can make sperm, and men can make eggs

"Biologist Katsuhiko Hayashi discovered a way to turn mouse skin cells into sperm and egg cells — and actually used these modified cells to create a living baby mouse. Cells from a male mouse could be converted into eggs. Mice that were infertile could become fertile again, by turning their skin cells into viable germ cells. However, both iPS and embryonic stem cells frequently pick up chromosomal abnormalities, genetic mutations and epigenetic irregularities during culture. 'There could be potentially far-reaching, multi-generational consequences if something went wrong in a subtle way,' says Moore." (read).

Donate Your Data

Susan Desmond-Hellmann, the current chancellor of UCSF and oncologist and biotechnology leader, recently quoted the late Steve Jobs, saying that the biggest innovations in the world will come from the intersection of biology and technology. In her talk, she described the MeForYou.org initiative which is trying to ignite the same volunteer spirit of giving blood to instead give genetic information to enable a massive database to power research and innovation (check it out!).



The French touch: after the Hadopi law comes the Genopi law:

Did you know that, being a French citizen, I cannot have my genome sequenced, because it is forbidden by law? Forget about donating your data... But I do want to donate my data!! So I've voted with my feet and left my country...

Are we so sure about brain death? - La "mort cérébrale". En est-on si sûrs ?

Australia: Clinically dead woman revived after 42 minutes

"Australian doctors have saved the life of a woman who was clinically dead for 42 minutes.

The miracle patient was rushed to hospital after a major heart attack, but was declared clinically dead soon after arrival.

With the aid of a hi-tech machine that kept blood flowing to her brain, doctors at Melbourne's MonashHeart managed to unblock vital arteries and return her heart to a normal rhythm.

The hospital today described her survival as "astonishing".

Doctors say Vanessa Tanasio, 41, a mother of two from the suburb of Narre Warren, needed numerous defibrillator shocks, including one in the ambulance on her way to hospital.

In a telephone interview from the hospital, she said she was eager to get home. "I'm feeling excellent. For someone who has been dead for nearly an hour of this week I am feeling tremendously well."

Emergency medics used a device called LUCAS 2 to keep her blood flowing last Monday while cardiologist Dr Wally Ahmar worked to unblock the arteries to her heart.

Tanasio, a sales representative for an earthmoving equipment company, said she had no history of heart problems.

"This has taken me completely by surprise. I am relieved to still be here for my children. The doctors and the nurses have been awesome. The machine is awesome."

Australie : Cliniquement morte depuis 42 minutes, elle revient à la vie

"En Australie, une femme âgée de 41 ans a vécu une expérience hors du commun. Elle a été cliniquement morte pendant 42 minutes. 

Health Innovation Summit in San Francisco

Missed the Health Innovation Summit in San Francisco last week, did you? Today we bring you the highlights from day two. Highlights of HiSum 2013: Part II

On PCR And Genomics

"The polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is a biochemical technology in molecular biology to amplify a single or a few copies of a piece of DNA across several orders of magnitude, generating thousands to millions of copies of a particular DNA sequence. PCR is now a common and often indispensable technique used in medical and biological research labs for a variety of applications. These include DNA cloning for sequencing, DNA-based phylogeny, or functional analysis of genes; the diagnosis of hereditary diseases; the identification of genetic fingerprints (used in forensic sciences and paternity testing); and the detection and diagnosis of infectious diseases." (Wikipedia)

Now those PCR machines can be pretty expensive...



... or they can be hacked in a fablab, for free use... The PCR machine you get to see in the video below (at 5:57) is 10 times less expensive... (you can activate the English subtitles in the bottom bar of the video)...

Wireless Medicine

Who Should Life Science Pros Follow on Twitter?

Anticipating the $100 genome era and the P4™ medicine revolution. P4 Medicine (Predictive, Personalized, Preventive, & Participatory): Catalyzing a Revolution from Reactive to Proactive Medicine.

Genomics+Telcos+Device+Pharma=Wireless Medicine



Genomics at Illumina Inc. Impressive, isn't it?


Fancy George Clooney wearing Google Glass in "ER"? And what else? Hospitals using FB and Twitter

Here's how paramedics can access patient health records on the go.

Google Glass: Coming soon to a cop near you?

Hospitals are turning to social media to engage patients and improve the patient experience, which is by its nature often frightening and unpleasant. 




"Printing Out a Biological Machine"

After Organ Transplant Comes Gene Transplant

DIY Bio: Gene Transplant

L'ADN complet d'un humain occuperait 3 Go de mémoire !

 
[Le saviez-vous ?] L'ADN complet d'un humain occuperait 3 Go de mémoire !







3D Printing: French Sci-Fi Writer's Giving His Heart Out

French Sci-Fi Writer Bernard Werber had the exact replica of his own heart printed out, with the help of a 3D printer...

Bernard Werber: "Mon vrai coeur en sculpture, fruit de la nouvelle technologie VIZUA sous l'oeil expert du maitre en sculpture 3 D sylvain Ordureau.
Merci Sylvain...
PS 1 : technologie Vizua par Sylvain Ordureau, radiologie Dr JF Paul, designer Omar Bouhelal Shirmer.
PS 2 : on l'a radiographié car il a des petites pannes du fait d'un bouchage d'une coronaire, mais je fais du sport.
PS 3: c'est avec ça que j'écris." (Facebook, 08/19/2013).

#CDoM

Who do you think is the best ambassador of medicine to the public?

#CDoM: "The Creative Destruction of Medicine"
"Will the Neil deGrasse Tyson of medicine please stand up?" 

Are you interested in your own biological OS? An Introduction To Microbial Genetics


Fair Trade Electronics Offering Low-Tech And Low-Cost Solutions

Green and biodegradable electronics - DIY Bio-Based Electronics

"We live in a world where the lifetime of electronics is becoming shorter, now approaching an average of several months. This poses a growing ecological problem. This brief review will present some of the initial steps taken to address the issue of electronic waste with biodegradable organic electronic materials. Many organic materials have been shown to be biodegradable, safe, and nontoxic, including compounds of natural origin. Additionally, the unique features of such organic materials suggest they will be useful in biofunctional electronics; demonstrating functions that would be inaccessible for traditional inorganic compounds. Such materials may lead to fully biodegradable and even biocompatible/biometabolizable electronics for many low-cost applications. This review highlights recent progress in these classes of material, covering substrates and insulators, semiconductors, and finally conductors."

"Pourquoi ne pas rêver d’une électronique biodégradable, assemblée par des microbes à partir de matières biologiques abondantes sur toute la surface de la planète ?
Ce rêve est plus réel qu’il n’y paraît. Mihai Irimia-Vladu, professeur à l’université de Linz, rapporte dans une publication de 2006 la construction d’un transistor à base de cafféine, de béta-carotène et de sucre caramélisé. Si les processus mis en oeuvre par ce professeur pour produire ses transistors sont loin d’être suffisamment low-tech pour être DIY, la base de matériaux, bio-sourcés et bio-dégradables, n’en est pas moins radicalement prometteuse."

Green and biodegradable electronics:
https://www.jku.at/JKU_Site/JKU/ipc/content/e166717/e166907/e174991/e178578/2012-021.pdf

DIY Bio-Based Electronics
http://www.lapaillasse.org/news/1120/diy-bio-based-electronics (French version)

Do-it-yourself biology: challenges and promises for an open science and technology movement
http://www.lapaillasse.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Landrain_DIYbio_SSBJ_2013.pdf

Steward Brand: "Science is the only news."

"Science is the only news.
When you scan through a newspaper or magazine, all the human interest stuff is the same old he-said-she-said, the politics and economics the same sorry cyclic dramas, the fashions a pathetic illusion of newness,
and even the technology is predictable if you know the science.
Human nature doesn't change much; science does, and the change accrues, altering the world irreversibly."
We now live in a world in which the rate of change is the biggest change.
Science has thus become a big story."

http://biogarage.de/english.html
http://longnow.org/people/board/sb1

Public Pressure May Push Doctors to Join 21st Century

EMR= electronic medical record.

Sharing Economy + 3D printing + 3D scanning + 3D bioprinting + yet another avatar: DIY Bio (fablab)

Consommation collaborative + 3D Printing + 3D scanning + 3D bioprinting + un autre avatar qui vient d'apparaître : le DIY Bio.. Voir l'excellente vidéo d'Ellen Jorgensen (sous titré en français) qui présente les "Bio Garages"... (dont un vient d'ouvrir à Paris - Billautshow prévu à la rentrée). Les Français "normaux" avec leur principe de précaution ne sont pas sortis de l'auberge ... Pas votre avis ?

Not-made-in-France Liberty-Equality-NBIC

Not-made-in-France Liberty-Equality-NBIC

The Rise Of GenoMeetic

"Le GénoMeetic arrive" (Dr. Laurent Alexandre).


"The Fall And Rise Of Gene Therapy"

"The Fall And Rise Of Gene Therapy"

Geonomics at the Hong-Kong Museum of science: the soybean genomic project (China-HK)

" Science News Corner of the Hong Kong Science Museum is an information centre for exhibiting scientific research projects of local universities, new discoveries and the latest technologies. It helps to keep the public informed of the latest science news.

Current Topic - Soybean Homecoming (13-04-2013 to 03-09-2013)

Soybean was first domesticated in China about 3,000 years ago. After being introduced to the United States in the 18th Century, it has been developed into an important cash crop worldwide due to its high nutritional and health value. Nonetheless, it also becomes one of the 'food crises' in its homeland, China. Owing to insufficient self-supply, China spends tens of billions of US dollars each year to import soybean (more than half of total global export). To expedite soybean research and breeding in China, scientists in Hong Kong, in collaboration with researchers in Shenzhen, have launched a large-scale soybean genomic project. They use the advanced deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) sequencing technology to demonstrate the biodiversity in wild soybeans and uncover useful genomic information therein. The ultimate goal is to strengthen the research on and sustainable cultivation of soybean in its 'home', China."

http://hk.science.museum/en_US/web/scm/se/snc.html


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"Cliffhanger, The World In 3013", a new book... soon out!

I've got a new ghost and I totally love him!!

This time I'll be all about gene transplantation, that is:

transplanting genes into cells, thus enabling to effectively rewrite patients' DNA...

But if you want to transplant genes, you need... viruses. And here comes the dangerous part of that transplant job...

Anyway... More about that in my new book... soon out on Amazon...

Here's a hint...

"THE FALL AND RISE OF GENE THERAPY"

Le "Geek" de 2025 fera plus de biologie que d'informatique

La technomédecine fait sa révolution, et c'est inéluctable. On commence à entendre parler de génétique et d'informatique conjuguant leurs savoirs, de convergence, de génomique. Mais à quoi tout ce fatras servira-t-il ? Bienvenue dans un nouveau monde, qui a quitté le domaine du "buzz" pour passer aux réalités ... et quelles réalités ...


"Nous allons progressivement devenir des êtres prototypes en version beta modifiés par la technologie". 

Laurent Alexandre : "On pourra bientôt réaliser un organe entier, en associant des matrices de polymère et des cellules souches. En 2011, un patient a bénéficié d'un larynx artificiel, composé de polymères et de cellules souches. En 2030, le chirurgien sera un spécialiste de bio informatique."

Pour découvrir les huit grandes facettes de la technomédecine, voir la présentation du chirurgien-urologue et neurobiologiste, Laurent Alexandre, également diplômé de Science Po, d'HEC et de l'ENA. Fondateur de plusieurs start-ups dont Doctissimo, il dirige aujourd'hui DNAVision, société spécialisée dans le séquençage de l'ADN. Auteur en 2011 d'un essai intitulé "La mort de la mort", il s'intéresse aujourd'hui aux bouleversements que va connaître l'humanité conjointement aux progrès biotechnologiques.



Et la conclusion, qui ne relève en rien du "made in France" ...


Un grand merci au Dr. Laurent Alexandre pour cette présentation ! Concise, claire, tonique et très documentée, une présentation qui fait le tour de ce qui nous attend ... et nous rend plus familiers avec un terrain inconnu en France jusqu'à présent : la génomique ...

The Artificial Kidney That Will Be Ready In 2017


Scientists from the University of California, San Francisco are on a mission to create a sophisticated artificial kidney device made with human kidney cells, silicon nanofilters and powered by blood pressure.

The project, led by UCSF nephrologist William Fissell and bioengineering professor Shuvo Roy, aims to begin testing the kidney device in 2017.

10 Bioengineered Body Parts That Could Change Medicine

"Les lois bioéthiques françaises : bricolages et contresens", livre de Catherine Coste (Amazon)

"Les lois bioéthiques françaises : bricolages et contresens". Livre en langue française, à paraître en septembre 2013 (disponible sur Amazon dès le 01/09/2013). Livre dédié à Alain Tesnière.

VIDEO 1
"Les Effets du don d'organes :"

Voici le témoignage d'une psychologue en milieu scolaire. Récemment, elle a été confrontée à la question du "don" des organes de sa fille, âgée de 24 ans, décédée des suites d'un accident de ski ... On nous vante souvent la générosité d'un acte présenté comme anodin - car l'essentiel est qu'il "sauve une vie" : le don d'organes. La psychologue scolaire nous propose de découvrir le vrai visage de ce "don", plus violent qu'on ne le pense, et qu'elle nomme ... sacrifice. Elle ne souhaite pas revenir sur sa décision, mais expliquer au grand public que le don d'organes a quelque chose de transgressif ... Saluons le courage de la maman psychologue, et remercions-là pour ce témoignage précieux ...

Le 27 janvier 2011, cette maman confrontée à la question du don d'organes a témoigné sur "les effets du don d'organes". Témoignage déposé auprès du Dr Jacques Lucas, vice-président du Conseil National de l'Ordre des médecins (CNOM) : lire son témoignage ici : http://nereja.free.fr/files/EFFETS_DU_DON.pdf




VIDEO 2
Ici Londres. Les chirurgiens parlent aux chirurgiens.