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).


Crush Test


Crush Test is the name of my new band. I'm the singer and my friend & publisher, Jon, is the musician. Well, he's been playing electric guitar and classical guitar for 40 years ;-)

I've been asked to write lyrics for songs, related to my fiction (a medical thriller) Airpocalypse. This fiction will be out soon (Fr version). The songs are all related to the fiction. The main character is Lenoir, a French cardiac surgeon, having made mistakes in the past, trying to implement the future of medicine, in France but also in China (Beijing). Lenoir will experience an epic breakup with his secretary, Mia, then he gets to meet with a scientist from China, a microbiologist and bioinformatician, Eileen Li.

This is the first song we are working on (The Mad Tear Party), and here is the second one (Cell Haiku):

Brain
Is Cell biology
Is molecular biology
Is genetics
Is a powerhouse
for microbes.

Computer science
Is medicine.

Python R Statistics MATLAB
Are tomorrow’s
Microscope
Stethoscope.

Genomics
Is making medical diagnostics.
Gene editing tool
Merry CRISPRmas
Is the new scalpel.

Left hand
Is for the wet lab
Right hand
Is for the dry lab.

Computer programmer
Is the new Doctor.

Science
Is Medicine
Is Data is data is data.

Citizen science
Is a MOOC
Is Decentralized Medicine.
Dying Steve Jobs:
« Biology and I.T. have merged.
Time to learn about it. »

Genomics
Is making medical diagnostics.
Gene editing tool
Merry CRISPRmas
Is the new scalpel.

Left hand
Is for the wet lab
Right hand
Is for the dry lab.

Computer programmer
Is the new Doctor.

Third song: My biochemical romance

I am an IT & Cell Architect
Circuitry of human cells
Analog to
Digital technology.

I am a maker
With a biocomputer.
Chip on your shoulder?
Put it in a cell. Human on chip.

Yesterday I grew
Snippets of code
From my RNA.
When I grow old
Snippets of organs
Will grow
From my DNA.

« I want you to engineer a molecule. »
My body cells
Coding in
Python.

I am a maker
With a biocomputer.
Chip on your shoulder?
Put it in a cell. Human on chip.

Love as
A mechemical
Hub.
Snippets of bugs,
Code on fire, hug & mug:
Snug bucket list
Of chemicals
Scripting in Java
C++ Signature Claws
Of Schrödinger’s cat
Speaking snake language
Phishing lies
Fishing apples.

I am a maker
With a biocomputer.
Chip on your shoulder?
Put it in a cell. Human on chip.

The sun
Will learn
From my
Mitochondria.
DNA
Replicating in
The Social Network.

I am a maker
With a biocomputer.
Chip on your shoulder?
Put it in a cell. Human on chip.



Fourth song: If Mister Spock Could See Me

Luxury brands investing in biotech
Patenting 365 biochemical and genetic pathways
That are responsible for calmness, happiness and sensuality.

If Mister Spock
Could see me

As I have
No God no Religion
He would say
I am not a good companion.

Luxury brands investing in biotech
Patenting 365 biochemical and genetic pathways
That are responsible for calmness, happiness and sensuality.

As people
I admire most
Are dancers
Choreographers, writers;
Not scientists,
He would say
I am an escape artist.

Luxury brands investing in biotech
Patenting 365 biochemical and genetic pathways
That are responsible for calmness, happiness and sensuality.

My faulty logic,
My love for Edgar
Allan Poe,
My woe...

All
A minor
Mishap.

A grave
Misunderstanding,
When it comes to my
C Sharp
Or Python coding.

Luxury brands investing in biotech
Patenting 365 biochemical and genetic pathways
That are responsible for calmness, happiness and sensuality.

If Mister Spock
Could see me

His diagnosis
And Freudian logic
Writing an algorithm,
A sci-fi beam,
A beating-heart
Force bypass.

If Mister Spock
Could see me

May the Force
Be with my coronary artery.

His diagnosis
And Freudian logic
Writing an algorithm,
A sci-fi beam,
A beating-heart
Force bypass.


Fifth Song: The snapdragon flower on the Great Wall

The mistake I once made
Kept popping in my head
Driving me backwards
Driving me too far
Deep learning connecting
Her tears with my blood.
Her blood with my tears.

Forwards was always
Made of walls,
Of whispering 
Shards of mirror, 
Taking my blistered heartbeats
On a shoestring
On the Great Wall,

Made-in-China 
Grief.

I am a cardiac surgeon
I play it by ear
Never by the book.

My mistakes whispering to me:
« You belong to the past »
All day long
Shoestring by shoestring
On the Great Wall.

She was there she witnessed
Everything
And yet she knows nothing.
My heart is not this ice bucket
That we both know
Like the back of our hand.

Our love came to grief.
« Let-It-Go » Princess
Throwing walls
Analyzing the bricks’ DNA
Saying « Ha it’s all yours! »

And my mistakes whispering to me:
« You belong to the past »
All day long
Shoestring by shoestring
On the Great Wall.

Our epic breakup
Is still echoing
On The Great Wall.
Our Terracotta love,
Made in Xi’An,
Guarding the walls
Guarding the tombs.

Among the soldiers,
I saw hidden lotus flowers.

« Can’t you see
This army
Is only 
An army 
Of garden 
Gnomes? »

It took me some time,
But I grew to like
Their whisper.
I made sure
It would pave
My own way.
I grew out of grief.

I grew to love
Their whisper.

This garden gnome
Slayer
Was a bioengineer
From Beijing.
I replaced frontiers
With sciences,
Infinite Loops
That kept me in the past
With the most unexpected thing:
A bunch of fresh flowers.

Seeking their freedom
I forget that Xi’An past.
The science and love we make
Make me forget
The walls in my blood platelets.
I am from Beijing
I am from Paris,
Who cares?
The walls have ears,
But our science
Won’t stay in its niche.

I am a cardiac surgeon
I play it by ear
Never by the book.

Our science is going glocal.
Our science is our frontier,
Garden gnomes travelling
Around the globe.
They forgot the taste of
Terracotta,
They are not sure
If it is panacotta
Or mozzarella.

I am a cardiac surgeon.
There was this time
When walls were reaching deep
Into the roots of my nerves,
And I was addicted to cheese…
… cheesy love.

I am a cardiac engineer.
Now it’s time
For the dragon and the lotus flower
To meet.
To meet forever.

Forever trying to understand,
Binding stone with living material
That will heal the building
During earthquakes.
Bioengineers helping
Walls to heal…
The Great Wall is coming to life,
It stayed dormant too long,
And forgot
That it was a dragon.

I am a cardiac engineer.
Now it’s time
For the dragon and the lotus flower
To meet.
To meet forever.

Beijing love.

When the dragon found out
That sitting by the horrendous fire
he was spitting and breathing
There was
This industrious snapdragon flower,
Mocking him 
Because he was suffering
From Garden gnome anxiety.

Beijing love.

When the dragon found out
That sitting by the horrendous fire
he was spitting and breathing
There was
This industrious snapdragon flower,
Mocking him 
Because he was suffering

From Garden gnome anxiety.

Sixth Song: Girl With Golden Genes





I met with her
When i was sitting'n 
Sinking
Deep down 
In the nick.

Reliving again and again
Forced organ
Transplant'n
Harvesting
In China.
Made-in-China 
Organs.

She arrived in the nick of time
Or so I thought.
She is a scientist
Her questions are like her genes:
Dangerous.

« Why can’t humans regenerate body parts? 
We’ve got the genes. »

Her questions are like her genes:
Dangerous.

I am a transplant surgeon.
I do bypass procedures.
Didn’t she just say
She wants to bypass me?

Her questions are like her genes:
Dangerous.

« Why can’t humans regenerate body parts? 
We’ve got the genes. » 

My dreams must have materialized
This hazard
So beautiful I couldn’t begin to imagine Her.
Us.
She laughed and said
She was a woman; not a question,
She said she was an engineer in Beijing
With a startup 
« Life at the speed of light »:
She was able to digitize living material
And e-mail
It to me.
« And flip that round:
You e-mail me living material
And I rebuild it in the lab.
As good as new. »

Then she asked again:
« Why can’t humans regenerate body parts? 
We’ve got the genes. »

« Who are you?
Digital life? », I asked.
Was she just an e-mail 
I had received in the nick?

She arrived in the nick of time
Or so I thought.
She is a scientist
Her questions are like her genes:
Dangerous.

The queen of digital life
Made my body parts
Feel more alive than ever
All of me in all of her.
Our love was a digital
Grinning cat,
But then we met,
In rainy Beijing,
In the deadly fog
of a bitter cold winter.

Now I have a crush on her
Startup.
Now I want to love at the speed of light.
« Are you talking about
body part regeneration? »
She asked.

A surgeon and an engineer
Drinking from the same cup
In Beijing’s Airpocalypse.
Making love and science,
At the speed of light.

I could hardly breathe.
« How about air at the speed of light? »
I asked.

« We’ve got a lot of genes
To regenerate our lungs,
Or limbs or heart »
« - Yes but something
isn’t allowing
That to happen.
That something is evolution.
For some evolutionary reason, 
this process has been blocked off.
our immune systems spoil the party 
by building up scar tissue around cuts. »

« Through DNA, every cell in our bodies 
contains the roadmap 
to build or re-build 
the entire machine. »

« if we can figure out 
how to turn on these genes, 
we can regenerate »

I said: « - You turn me on. »
Then paused.
No. Wait.
She had just flipped 
The switch.

« Do you want
To yank off hearts
From half dead prisoners 
in Beijing winter
Forever? »

She arrived in the nick of time
Or so I thought.
She is a scientist
Her questions are like her genes:
dangerous.

« - I just want to breathe »

She arrived in the nick of time
Or so I thought.
She is a scientist
Her questions are like her genes:
dangerous.

Her. At the speed of light:

« There must be
some sort of 'master control' gene
that starts the process off.
This could have implications
For central nervous system, 
heart and other internal organs
regeneration. »

She arrived in the nick of time
Or so I thought.
She is a scientist
Her questions are like her genes:
dangerous.

Her. At the speed of light.
" - Could this be an accepted medical reality in 100 years?"

She arrived in the nick of time
Or so I thought.
She is a scientist
Her questions are like her genes:
dangerous.

Her. At the speed of light.
" - Could this be an accepted medical reality in 100 years?"

Seventh Song: The Uighur Who Was Looking For The Bismillah Of DNA And Ended Up With A Nobel Prize

In the medical thriller "Airpocalypse", Jian Ping is a "dissident" writer living and working mainly in Beijing. Two pieces of fiction he wrote (one on organ trafficking, one on pollution) will land him in (and eventually out of) jail. Even though the surgeon part (Lenoir) has been written for Spanish actor Jean (Mo)reno -- so of course Lenoir is at the centre of everything -- Jian Ping is my favorite character, the one who kept me wanting to write this story, that in fact is his story. 

Jungle Genomic Book
3 billion base pages 
Of As, Ts, Cs and Gs 
Not informative.

3 billion phenotypes:
Holy Grail

Big Pharma 
One Blockbuster.

New tool
For evolution
Found
In ancestral species:
RNAs.

3 billion phenotypes:
Holy Grail.

Big Pharma 
One Blockbuster.

Genes replicating,
Expanding,
Travelling without moving.

At the beginning 
Of life:
No Copyright Infringement
Madness. 

Lawyers:
Nucleic acid
Replicating machines,
Viruses
Wreaking havoc. 

3 billion phenotypes:
Holy Grail.

Big Pharma 
One Blockbuster.

At the beginning
Of life:
RNA Interference Madness.
The cop
Protecting « Purple » 
Killing « Elprup ».

Mirror images:
Vade retro,
Omnia Vanitas 
Virus.

3 billion phenotypes:
Holy Grail.

Big Pharma 
One Blockbuster.

Evolution with cop:
Cutting through proteins.

Doctor's stethoscope, 
Out of Patient's scope,
Has fallen into disuse.

Blockchain and Smartphone, 
Playing Doctor on 
Periscope.

I am a Uighur
Looking for the Bismillah of DNA
I am looking for the Bismillah
Of DNA 
Of RNA
The Sunnah of Biology

They say
DNA makes RNA makes Protein
The Sunnah the better

The Sunnah you understand
Biology
The better.

Looking for the Bismillah of DNA
I found viruses
RNA viruses
Their genomes are made of RNA
But they eventually
Make a copy
A DNA copy
Of their RNA genome
And integrate it
Into the host 
Organism.

Looking for the Bismillah of DNA
The Sunnah of biology
I discovered 
This is the first time 
The central dogma
Ever went backwards.

The Bismillah of DNA
Is not as dogmatic
As we originally thought -
Looking for the Sunnah of Biology
I ended up with a Nobel

Prize.


Eighth song: Wrong Hands. 
In my medical thriller "Airpocalypse", there is a dialogue between a pair of AR/VR glasses and Lenoir, a French cardiac surgeon, senior member of the Académie of Medicine in Paris, going to China to transplant hearts. Like those little vials or flasks that are labelled "Eat me" or "Drink me" in "Alice In Wonderland", the pair of glasses is conveying a message: "Wear me."

(AR: augmented reality
VR: virtual reality.) 

I’m a tiny
Big Data
Device,
About the size 
Of a pair of glasses.

I see the future
In Virtual Reality.

Organ transplant in China?
They say:
Free will, 
Morals and responsibility,
But in the territory
Of democratorship.

I say:
Genes, hormones and neurons 
Merely comply 
With the universal laws 
Of physics and chemistry. 
An electrochemical process 
At work in the brain, 
Because of this or that genetic profile 
Resulting from constraints 
Resolved in such and such a way 
By evolution.
Add a pinch of epigenetic, 
These mini conductors of our chromosomes 
Making proteins, 
And of course some mutations 
Due to chance, 
Happy or deleterious.

See, biology and I.T.
Have merged.
Time to learn about it.

Environment
And wrong hands.
Transplant surgeons,
Know where your organs come from.
Use me.

If this heart is from a Falun Gong Spy
Arrested by the Chinese Army,
Or from the mafia
Trying to steal 
The Falun Gong’s money,
Or from Uighurs,
People from the 
Muslim Republic of China
In Xinjiang
Sitting right next to
The territory of
Daesh,
I will show you.
See, biology and I.T.
Have merged.
Time to learn about it.

Environment
And wrong hands.
Transplant surgeons,
Know where your organs come from.
Use me.

Nobody wants the heart
That triggered
The war.

If the mafia 
Or the Uighurs
Want to take revenge on
The surgeon 
Who took their hearts,
I will show you.

If Northern Korea
Wants to make an alliance
With Daesh,
I will also warn you.
But don’ worry
Secret Services
In China
Are already on it.
They will break this alliance
At all costs.

Nobody wants the heart
That triggered
The war.

Daesh with nuclear 
Weapon,
Willing to
Restore the Caliphate.

I will tell you
Where this heart is from.
Nobody wants the heart
That triggered
The war.

Know
The DNA of geopolitics,
The environmentalome.

A Uighur
Is a person from 
The Xinjiang province,
A Muslim Chinese.

Know
The DNA of geopolitics,
The environmentalome.

Is organ donation
The donation
Of nuclear weapon
To Daesh
Because of transplanted hearts,
In an obscure chain
Of causes and consequences?

Organ donation
And donation of
Nuclear weapon
Are two different things.

Nobody wants the heart
That triggered
The war.

Dead angles
That doctors cannot see,
Organ transplant in wrong hands,
I will show you.

Genes, hormones and neurons 
Merely comply 
With the universal laws 
Of physics and chemistry. 
An electrochemical process 
At work in the brain, 
Because of this or that genetic profile 
Resulting from constraints 
Resolved in such and such a way 
By evolution.
Add a pinch of epigenetic, 
These mini conductors of our chromosomes 
Making proteins, 
And of course some mutations 
Due to chance, 
Happy or deleterious.

See, biology and I.T.
Have merged.
Time to learn about it.

Environment
And wrong hands.
Transplant surgeons,
Know where your organs come from.
Use me.

I’m a tiny
Big Data
Device,
About the size 
Of a pair of glasses.

I was a device;
I became a software.

I see the future
In Virtual Reality.

Biology and I.T.
Have merged.

Time to learn about it.

Lyrics of all songs by Catherine Coste, for medical thriller "Airpocalypse". Copyrighted material.

#GenomicEntertainment

Aucun commentaire: