WEBVTT

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What do these two everyday objects,

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a drug and a smartphone,
have in common?

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We will try to solve
this little riddle today,

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in the next few minutes.

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First, the drug: I have always
been fascinated by this object.

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The mere fact of swallowing it
is somehow almost magical,

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it's enough to cure diseases,
sometimes, to even brave death.

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I have always been fascinated

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by the fact that this same drug
helps to cure billions of people,

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all of them different:
you, your neighbor, me.

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It is the challenge
of personalized medicine:

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to understand why, when I have a headache,

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if I take an aspirin pill,
that is enough to relieve my pain,

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while my neighbor needs
two of the same pills

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to relieve the same headache pain.

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Therefore, these questions are
the challenges of tomorrow

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when it comes to understanding
our personal response to treatment,

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and above all, finding
the best treatment for everyone.

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So I suggest you keep in mind
these questions,

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- they are particularly dear to me,
we shall return to them later -

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and I first suggest that you look back
in the rearview mirror a little

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and notice the extraordinary progress
that has been made in medicine

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in the past century:

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we've extended life expectancy,
and decoded our genes.

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Louis Pasteur would have believed
science was a fiction novel

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had he seen the extent
of our modern biology;

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there are decades of technological
revolution behind this drug.

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On the other hand,

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what an extraordinary progress
has been achieved in computer science

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in the past 30 years

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thinking back at how computers
used to occupy entire rooms.

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Today, we concentrate
a phenomenal computing power

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in the palm of our hands.

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Do you remember Alan Turing?

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Alan Turing who was considered
the father of the modern computer

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during the World War II;

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I think he would have believed
science is a fiction novel too,

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had he seen the extent
of our modern computer science.

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My vocation is to bring
these two worlds together

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and power, inside a computer,

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the stimulation of an organism,
of your personal response to treatment.

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Of course, behind these
scientific and technological stakes,

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there are several social issues hidden.

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Do you know that this drug,
apparently so innocent, so familiar,

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is very far from being a mere drug?

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There are more deaths each year
due to inadequate medication

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than people killed in road accidents
and suicides combined.

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I think that this small object,
a smartphone or a computer,

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can help tackle these issues.

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And before talking technology,

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I would like to start by sharing
a little personal anecdote.

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I want to talk to you
about my wife, Caroline.

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Caroline is an avid
animal rights activist.

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On my part, for several years,

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I worked on cancer
in an experimental biology laboratory

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and among our activities,
we sometimes worked on animals.

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You can imagine the disaster
at home sometimes.

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That was something.

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Of course, she would question me:

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do we have the right 
to sometimes abuse animals

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and is it always really that useful?

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We have an extremely complex debate

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and of course, I will never deny

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all the contributions experimental biology
and animal biology to current knowledge.

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Nevertheless, this discussion
made me question myself,

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and I would like to share with you
some of that reflection today.

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That's true, this drug originally
was designed based on animals,

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then only afterwards,
it was tested on man.

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But not on you in particular!

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Remember, we all respond differently,

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You, me, my neighbor.

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Why? Because you, madam,
are not the replica of you, sir.

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That explains why you respond
differently to this treatment.

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And if I may,

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you, madam, are even less
the replica of a lab mouse.

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When, in fact, cancer
is tackled through the animal,

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we want to cure Cancer with a big C.

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I do not want to cure cancer.

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I do not want to cure cancer.

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I want to cure your cancer.

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If one day it should happen to you,
and I do not wish it,

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but if that were the case,

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I would love to find
the best treatment for you

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which is not the same
as your neighbor’s

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because your cancer would not be
the replica of your neighbor’s cancer

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and even less, once again,
the replica of a cancer

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artificially induced
in a laboratory animal.

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Isn't there another way
of conceiving things?

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The idea's here to start from the patient,
from you, from your characteristics,

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to project them into the machine,

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create what is called a digital twin,

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and in this digital twin, test
the response to the treatment,

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thus decreasing animal testing

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which is costly
and ethically questionable,

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and in addition, better targeting
the response to treatment.

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So how do we get there?

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Of course, our organism
is extremely complex:

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a man's is diffrent from a woman's

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but I believe women's are sometimes 
particularly more complex.

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The complete opposite 
is also true, I assure you.

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On a more serius note, I like
the analogy with electronics

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to grasp this magnificent complexity.

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I am always amazed when I see
the circuit in a simple radio,

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the complexity of its connections,
sub-circuits, and components.

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There is very similar
to our complex organism.

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Of course in biology, in our organism,

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the interactions are not electronic,

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they are chemical, physical, biological

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and this is precisely
the mission of biology:

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to decipher this complexity.

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But there is a fundamental
difference with electronics:

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no human has conceived
the blueprint of our organism.

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When a radio breaks down,

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since we know the blueprint,
we know how to repair it.

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It's a whole different story
when our organism breaks down,

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gets sick.

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we do not know the blueprint,
so it's a little bit as if

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some natives of Amazon,
however intelligent they may be,

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had to understand and repair
a radio overnight.

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That, again, is the challenge of biology.

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In recent years, we have come
to understand better

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and more and more pathologies.

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Thousands of research teams
around the world,

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are decrypting this complexity,

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understanding small pieces of circuitry,
independent pieces of the puzzle.

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This is where computer science
and mathematics come into play.

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With these tools,

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we will be able to reattach
these little bits

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and to make live in a virtual world,
in the machine,

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these bits, assembled circuits,
puzzle pieces that we simulate,

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that we make come alive
inside the computer.

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What you see here is a virtual cell,

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a cancer cell,

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It is in fact the projection
of a cancer cell in a software,

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what is commonly called an application.

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Again we see the analogy
with electronics,

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there are all these circuits,
these connections.

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Again, it's biology.

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And we see all this complexity
of the cancer cell

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which makes it formidably effective.

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Each dot, of course these are not
dots of electronic components,

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is a biological interaction,
a protein for example.

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We saw there Akt, Ras,

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which is a protein that is involved
in the virulence of many cancers:

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pancreatic cancer, skin cancer...

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What is particularly interesting
in this virtual cancer cell

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is that it is not simply
a collection of information.

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In fact, behind each dot,
each entity in this network,

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hides an equation.

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And behind a whole network
is a system of equations

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at the confluence between
mathematics and biology.

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It is called bio-mathematics,

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also called the biology of systems

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and it allows us
to set this network to music,

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to play, to simulate parts
of this virtual cell,

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parts, pieces of this puzzle
in the machine.

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So this is an incredible playground,

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because this complexity is very difficult
for the human brain to apprehend.

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And thanks to the computer tool
and the mathematical tool,

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we are able to master, control
and visualize this complexity.

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And when we visualize things,

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we are making a big step
towards solving problems.

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Now, let's put us in the shoes
of a drug designer.

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Let us play the role
of the pharmaceutical laboratory.

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In this digital twin,

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we will be able to test the new drugs

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to reduce animal testing

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and to promote experimentation
on virtual patients

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who will reflect your own diversity.

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Tomorrow, why not test your own response
to your medications

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on your own avatar,
your own digital twin?

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Not to cure cancer, to cure your cancer.

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Personally, I am convinced
that this innovation, tomorrow,

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will knock on our door,

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for medicines of everyday life.

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I say that because we talk a lot about
big data, right now in biology.

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It is in direct connection
with our subject, these massive data,

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are the data that make us all different,

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explain our differences,
my weight, my age, my height,

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but also my genetic data,

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my bio-markers...

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therefore explain our difference
in response to treatment

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and why I need less aspirin
than my next door neighbour.

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These numerical and mathematical
models that I have shown you

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feed on these massive data
and biological data.

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Thanks to them, we will be able
to build and specify your avatar,

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set up your digital twin.

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So you understood it,

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presently, we talk a lot
about personalized medicine.

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Today, I told you about
customized modeling

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in a calculation concentrate,
like this one,

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to be able tomorrow to simulate
your personal response to the treatment.

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This is really the challenge
of personalized medicine,

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digital medicine,
the medicine of the future.

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You may think I'm exaggerating a little.

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In fact, that is my belief,
even if perhaps today, for some,

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my words resonate
like a science fiction novel.

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Thank you.

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(Applause)