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Biography |
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Charles Auffray, PhD President and Founding Director European Institute for Systems Biology and Medicine CNRS-ENS-UCBL-INSERM Campus Charles Mérieux Université de Lyon 50, avenue Tony Garnier 69007 Lyon – France E-mail: cauffray@eisbm.org Charles Auffray graduated from Ecole Normale Supérieure de Cachan (Agrégation in Physiology and Biochemistry 1975), Pierre and Marie Curie University of Paris and the Pasteur Institute (State Doctorate in Molecular Immunology and Genetic Engineering 1981). He was a Post-doctoral Fellow and Junior Faculty (Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology of Harvard University in Cambridge, USA, 1981-1983); Group Leader (Institute of Embryology, CNRS and Collège de France, Nogent s/Marne, 1983-1991); Scientific Director of the Genexpress Program (Généthon, Evry, 1991-1995); Head of the CNRS Research Unit in Molecular Genetics and Developmental Biology, then Functional Genomics and Systems Biology for Health (Villejuif, 1991-2011). A Research Director at the CNRS Institute of Biological Sciences, he founded the European Institute for Systems Biology and Medicine (EISBM) in December 2010 with headquarters in Lyon supported by the local authorities, the academic and industrial partners of the Lyonbiopole international competitive cluster. In 2012 he joined the Joliot-Curie transdisciplinary Laboratory of CNRS and Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon, hosted by Claude Bernard University which is now affiliated to the International Center for Infectiology Research. Charles Auffray develops a systems approach to complex diseases, integrating functional genomics, mathematical, physical and computational concepts and tools. He is promoting open-access reagent, instrumentation and information platforms through public-private partnerships. He co-founded the IMAGE Consortium and the Systemoscope International Consortia with Professors Leroy Hood (Institute for Systems Biology, Seattle USA) and Zhu Chen (Center for Systems Biomedicine, Shanghai, China) to also tackle related epistemological, ethical, legal, philosophical and socio-economical issues with emphasis on interdisciplinary and public education. Charles Auffray has participated in or coordinated over 15 EU projects and is currently involved in the eTRIKS consortium (translational research information and knowledge management services), the Coordination action CASyM to develop the road map for implementation of systems medicine across Europe, also chairing the newly formed European Association of Systems Medicine, and the PREPARE Consortium for preparedness to outbreaks of infectious respiratory diseases. At EISBM, Charles Auffray is fostering the transition from reactive to proactive Systems P4 Medicine through the Pioneers of Health and Wellness Vistera Project in partnership with ISB and a worldwide network of systems medicine centres. He is the co-author of more than 250 publications and 11 books for the general public (H-index=55), a member of several international societies, review committees, editorial boards, and organizing committees of national and international conferences in systems biomedicine.
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Abstract |
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How Systems Biology Will Revolutionize 21st Century Medicine through the Vistera Project |
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Systems biology approaches are combining high-dimensional functional genomics data with biological, clinical, environmental and lifestyle assessments through iterative statistical analyses, computational modelling and experimental validation. They are transforming biomedical research and clinical practice, triggering the transition from a reactive to a proactive practice of medicine (1-2). This is revolutionizing how medicine will be practiced in the 21st century (3-5). The effective development of participatory, personalized, predictive and preventive (P4) systems medicine requires harmonization of experimental and computational methods for data, information and knowledge collection, storage, analysis and sharing on a big data scale using high-performance cloud computing infrastructures ensuring data security and compliance with personal data and privacy protection regulations. In order to address the associated ethical, legal and social issues, the active participation of all stakeholders including researchers and clinicians in academy and industry, regulatory and funding bodies, individuals and patient organizations is thus essential. Two examples of individuals who have managed to anticipate the occurrence of disease and take preventive measures through a regular assessment of their exosome monitored through connected mobile devices (environmental and occupational exposures, nutrition, sleep, exercise, stress), clinicome (biological and clinical features), and integrome (metabolomics, proteomic, transcriptomic, epigenomic, genomic and genetic features) provide the basis for effective implementation of systems P4 medicine (6-7). The Vistera Project initiated by EISBM in Grenoble, Lyon, Nantes and Paris in partnership with ISB have been designed to scale up the monitoring of wellness, health and disease through the collection of billions of data points for increasing numbers of individuals who are healthy, at risk of developing disease, or in the course of disease development, with the active participation of individuals through social networks (8). The EISBM-ISB pilot studies form the basis for the development of a network of systems medicine centers in the context of the new framework programme of the European Union Horizon 2020. Through its worldwide extension to prominent research and hospital centers committed to implement the open standard protocol of the Vistera Project and enforce full compliance with personal data and privacy protection regulations under the umbrella of a World Alliance for Health and Wellness, this network will catalyze the transformation of healthcare delivery and the transition toward emphasis on management of wellness. By monitoring individuals over a long period of time, the Vistera Project will provide them with actionable recommendations to maintain their state of health and wellness, detect early events indicative of a risk or a transition to disease, enabling their management and reversal. The expectation is that expanding the monitoring from one to millions then billions of individuals over the next 25 years. The Vistera Project will trigger in one generation a reversal of the escalating costs of healthcare management, drug and diagnostic development, providing the basis for a more cost-efficient and sustainable integrated healthcare system.
1- Auffray C, Chen Z, Hood L. (2009) Genome Med. 1:29. 2- Hood L, Friend SH. (2011) Nat Rev Clin Oncol. 8:184-187. 3- Auffray C, Hood L. (2012) Biotechnol J. 7:938-939. 4- Hood L, Balling R., Auffray C. (2012) Biotechnol J. 7:992-1001. 5- Wolkenhauer O, Auffray C, Jaster R, Steinhoff G, Damman O. (2013) Pediatr Res. 73:502-507. 6- Smarr L. (2012) Biotechnol J. 7:980-991. 7- Chen R. et al. (2012) Cell 148:1293-1307. 8- Hood L, Auffray C. (2013) Genome Med. 5:110.
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