A l'UM la science [S03-ep02]: A revolution in the treatment of narcolepsy

This week on A l'UM la science, Yves Dauvilliers, neurologist at Montpellier University Hospital and researcher at the Neuroscience Institute, talks about a rare disease: narcolepsy. In the second half of the program, Patrick Lemaire presents the Sciences en images exhibition "La vie est belle".

Narcolepsy, which affects some 20,000 people in France, is one of those illnesses that lends itself to a smile, perhaps because it can't be seen, perhaps because it's so easy to imagine. And while Tristan Aurouet and Gilles Lellouche's film Narco helped to make the condition better known to the general public 20 years ago, it also lent it an aura of permanent joking pleasure by depicting the comical situations that these irrepressible bouts of sleep can actually cause.

In real life, narcolepsy is a heavy handicap for sufferers: difficulties in working, of course, but also difficulties in driving, weight gain, irritability, loss of self-confidence... In short, life for narcoleptics is anything but a long, quiet river. Fortunately, over the last twenty years, treatments have made great strides forward, thanks to a new molecule developed by our guest's team. Yves Dauvilliers is a sleep neurologist at Montpellier University Hospital, researcher at the Montpellier Neuroscience Institute and coordinator of the four French reference centers for narcolepsy.

Our last-minute guest is Patrick Lemaire, head of the MRI platform (Montpellier Ressources Imagerie) and researcher at the CRBM, the molecular biology research center. He tells us about the Sciences en images exhibition "La vie est belle" (Life is beautiful) organized by the imaging and cytometry platform to mark its 20th anniversary. The exhibition opens on September 29 and runs until October 31.

At UM la science you've got the program, here we go!

Coproduction: Divergence FM / Université de Montpellier
Animation: Lucie Lecherbonnier
Interviews: Aline Périault / Lucie Lecherbonnier
Production : Tom Chevalier

Listen to the program "A l'UM la science" on Divergence FM 93.9