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 whole transplant system needs to be disrupted, here's why

AUDIO VERSION (basically means I'm reading this Post): download audio file.  

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.

To start with, you need living organs from a "dead" person. Think. How dead can you be if your organs are still alive? The logic of "Brain death" is a "catch 22"one ... We shouldn't talk about organ donation. We should talk about sacrifice instead. Homo sacrificus: this is the foundation of organ transplant. Better leave that ugly truth unspoken...

The worst things happen when you make someone believe he's entitled (has the right) to have something (a vital organ from somebody else) and he ends up not having it, while others end up having it... Because of the immuno drug money (Big Pharma), propaganda says transplant is "standard procedure" medicine, and everybody should be granted the right to standard medicine, of course... For the sake of big (pharma) money, you create situations of unbearable frustrations... People do go mad... I've seen the wife of a kidney transplant patient. Well she used to be a collegue of mine... The patient died after FIVE kidney transplants... The couple's life was hell... But now he's dead (what a relief?) and his wife keeps harping on the same string, complaining that people are not generous... and that it's a shame... Had her husband been able to get a 6th kidney from somebody else, he'd still be alive... The woman hates anybody who won't approve blindly and hastily and say: "Yes, yes, of course, you're sooo right! Shame, shame! Blame the egoistic people, dying with their organs..."

I know a transplant surgeon in France (Strasbourg). He keeps calling patients waiting for a transplant in the middle of the night: "You need to be here right now! We've got a dead person!" - a "catch 22" "brain dead" person, that is, his or her family (next of kin) haven't even had time to give consent to organ donation, they don't even realize their beloved one is "catch 22 dead" - that is: dying, they are just in a state of shock. Then, still in the middle of the night, the very sick transplant patient (a woman) frantically makes a round of phone calls: "I'll get MY new kidney (liver/lungs...) I'll be able to pick up Amy from school very soon!!!" before rushing to hospital (with her husband)... Then, at around 6.00 AM, while they're uncomfortably (waiting for someone to FINALLY die) seated in some kind of anonymous waiting room (and have been waiting for a while), some nurse will inform them that the vital organs are being transplanted right now into some ...other people's body... Not hers... The sad truth is the woman is already too sick for the transplant to work...But nobody will tell her. PEOPLE NEED HOPE... SO GIVE THEM HELL... In the gloomy early morning, the couple (a nervous wreck) drive back home, saying: "We'd have been better off sleeping in our bed..."

I could tell you thousands of true stories like this one. Sorry stories...

Anyway, this reminds me of last year's Google new Phone, released to the market in November 2012. Only there were very few of those. Google got out of stock very quickly (within a few days or hours). Restocking only took place end of February 2013. In between, people went mad. THEY JUST WENT MAD WITH FRUSTRATION. It was only a phone, and the waiting period only lasted for a few month...

The hole transplant system reminds me of that story called: how to kill a frog. Pretty easy. Put it in lukewarm water, it won't escape. Then gradually increase the water's temperature. The frog will be dead before it knows it... See? Awfully easy...

Now I know some transplant surgeons in my family will read this "Post" and yell at me: "STOP THAT FROGGY BUSINESS!"

"Excuse me!", says Big Bang Theory's Sheldon Cooper... "Whose froggy business are we talking about?"

[Pic.]

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