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).


Job Interview

"Would you like to work in medical education entertainment?"

" - No thanks. I've seen the gulag (been there, done that) and I am not talented enough to make it look and sound and feel and smell like Disneyland. Happy to know that some other people are, though."

"Would you like to be an activist?"

"- No thanks, what's left of my mental health (not much, really) would vanish in the process, like the Titanic into the ocean. Plus, I can think of some people who really, really wouldn't like me to become an activist. Gotta care about the people you care about, right? Plus, I don't enjoy receiving death threats so much. I'd rather forget I ever did, actually."

"What did you study?"

" - Genomics. Still working on it, and I don't think I'll ever give it up. Just earned myself another MIT certificate (molecular biology, advanced level), so I'm super happy!! And also, literature (I'm a post-graduate in German literature, language and civilization). Love it, too. Can't say I have a passion for the microbiome, but I am fascinated (like many others) by cool genome editing tools like CRISPR-Cas9 and population genomics and bioinformatics. I'd like to write about it. Help speed things up, yes."

"Would you like to work in genomic entertainment?"

" - Definitely. Would love that!! I'm just a writer."

"Who are your favorite scientists and why?"

Nina Tandon is Katy Perry
Robert Darnell at the NY Genome Center is Louis Pasteur

J. Craig Venter is Michael Jackson
Eric T'Pol MD, sorry, I meant to say Topol, is Mr. Spock

 "How do others see you?"

" - Errrr..... (Where's Charlie??)"


"Who are the most important people for your work as a writer?"

" - My co-writer Isabelle, my husband, the teenagers around me. I never miss an update on T'Pol's twitter account ... Sorry, I meant to say, Eric Topol MD. Also, I spend a lot of time reading articles by MIT Tech Review."

Singing a romantic song in Mandarin Chinese...

 Someone asked me the other day: "What do you do in your free time?" I study songs in Chinese...

"The Moon Represents my Heart" (er yes, I'm singing here... )



Why this song?
Lyrics to this song.

"If only silo's & money were not storms people had to weather"



And yes, I know about that thing they call Photoshop.  

What Is Medutainment?

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/853980


Mein Lieblingsgedicht

Health Care activist Regina Holliday usually asks the people she gets to meet: "What is your favorite fairy tale?" I tend to ask people: "What is your favorite poem?"

Here is mine (btw I am a German native speaker).

Nur zwei Dinge

 

Durch so viele Formen geschritten,
durch Ich und Wir und Du,
doch alles blieb erlitten
durch die ewige Frage: wozu? Das ist eine Kinderfrage.
Dir wurde erst spät bewußt,
es gibt nur eines: ertrage
- ob Sinn, ob Sucht, ob Sage-
dein fernbestimmtes: Du mußt.
Ob Rosen, ob Schnee, ob Meere,
was alles erblühte, verblich,
es gibt nur zwei Dinge: die Leere
und das gezeichnete Ich. 


Gottfried Benn (Arzt: Dermatolog, Dichter) 

http://www.funcage.com/blog/18-amazing-examples-of-optical-illusion-photography

RoboHumanity and the Skinny Love Virus Projection


http://mouef.fr/futurama-saison-7-b-trailer
RoboHumanity and the Skinny Love Virus Projection

Picture by Lithuanian artist Natalie Shau

"Thing Explainer: Complicated Stuff in Simple Words"

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/24/books/randall-munroe-explains-it-all-for-us.html
The next must-read book on my list...

"No religion will ever be able to stop this"

A picture of me that means a lot to me.
Found it digging in the archives of this blog...

http://ethictransplantation.blogspot.fr/2011/05/quelle-religion-pourra-arreter-le.html
I am in Malaysia, this is May 2011 and I am trying to pray (buddhist style) for the victims of organ trafficking in China. I had to convince the lady in the temple to let me perform this religious ritual as I told her I was acting on behalf of families of dead Chinese prisoners. If you are hungry for the gruesome details, read "Bloody Harvest" by my friend David Kilgour and his colleague, Canadian lawyer David Matas (you'll be sorry you asked). There was really a lot of smoke in there (I can't see it on the picture, but I do recall it) and plenty of monkeys right next to the entrance of this cave (the temple is actually a cave) located in the mountain. "The monkeys are my bodyguards," so I told half jokingly the lady, since my Chinese astrological sign is earth monkey. I was lucky the lady could speak Mandarin Chinese (she didn't speak English), since Cantonese Chinese speakers are very frequent in Malaysia, but Mandarin... not so much. She looked as I performed my "ritual". This is probably the only time in my life I really tried to pray, ironically this was in a religious language I was not at all familiar with: buddhism. When I was done she poured me some tea, like she was Sheldon Cooper in Big Bang Theory, offering Bernadette (Soubirous, that lady of Lourdes Caves in France) a hot beverage. She commented in a sad voice (kind of talking to herself): "No religion will ever be able to stop this".

I really hope that cool CRISPR-Cas 9 genome editing tool will work, sooner than later. Spoke with my friend David Kilgour today. Those atrocities are still going on...

The Truth Lies Somewhere In The Middle

Eric Topol MD's twitter account Nov. 22 2015

The Mammon Doctor Will See You Now?! I prefer the #PWSYN book to this pic -> not representative of the book.

In Memoriam...

Ne cherchez pas les mots pour expliquer ce qui s'est passé, il n'y en a pas. Mais il vous faudra chercher les mots, longtemps, souvent et sur bien des routes différentes, pour continuer à vivre.

Seeking A Job In Medutainment


So as soon as I am done with my MIT training in genomics, will seek a job in Medutainment...

The Two Faces of CRISPR Race

Eric Topol MD on twitter, Nov. 10, 2015




From The Broad Institute To Broadway?


https://www.facebook.com/possessus
https://www.facebook.com/possessus
https://www.facebook.com/possessus

What angers me most in the world? Seeing teens who are being lied to. Discovering the roots of where my motivation to write fiction comes from...










via Calestous Juma on twitter, Nov. 11, 2015