Live a thousand years, seriously?
3 questions to John De Vos, cell therapy specialist and professor at the UM, on the occasion of the Assises du corps transformé, which opens in Montpellier on October 9.
What is transhumanism, the concept at the heart of this conference devoted to the "cyber-body"?
Transhumanism is a current of thought that aims to improve the human species, notably by increasing lifespan and/or genetic modification. Of course, this raises very strong opposition, and the subject has long remained taboo because it opens up a Pandora's box. If these techniques can be used to alleviate genetic diseases, they can also be used to increase intelligence, height, lifespan... The question that arises in particular is: what is the aim of improving the human species? What's more, there are many possible abuses, with the prospect of discrimination in relation to the genetic modifications carried out...
What are the most promising ways of increasing lifespan?
We could mention drugs, on which intensive research is being carried out, but also cell therapy. The idea is to offer regenerative medicine by injecting cells to repair organs damaged by age. We're still in the early stages, but some very interesting results have been observed in animal experiments to repair the heart, muscle or brain (Parkinson's)
Could we live a thousand years longer?
We've gained 40 years of life expectancy in the space of 300 years, thanks to advances in hygiene and medicine, but we're going to come up against more difficult barriers. That said, prospects do exist: in cell therapy, for example, there is a technique that enables us to reprogram a patient's cells back to an embryonic stage, i.e. to a stage just a few days old! This is IPS (induced pluripotent stem cell) technology. We know how to rejuvenate a cell in vitro, but we don't yet know how to apply it to an organ, and today it's difficult to set an agenda. With the exponential development of research and the arrival of new players such as China, it is in any case certain that we will move life expectancy beyond the age of 80.
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Les Assises du corps transformé, 6th edition: The cyber-body.
Conferences - Debates
October 9 and 10, Centre Rabelais, 29 bd Sarrail
With the participation of Jean-Claude Ameisen, Jacques Attali, Nicolas Bouzou, Jacques Mateu, François Vialla...
Tel: 04 67 29 83 32
Registration (compulsory) and program
The University of Montpellier is associated with the organization of the Assises du corps transformé via the Centre européen d'études et de recherche en Droit et Santé (UMR Dynamiques du Droit - UM, CNRS).