The Cyprus Institute

The 2025 Hubert Curien Memorial Lecture

Advances in Medicine do not Necessarily Translate Into Better Health

Prof. Alain Fischer
Emeritus Professor, Collège de France, Paris
 

A reception will follow the lecture

Abstract

Life expectancy including life expectancy in good gealth has dramatically progressed over the last century in the whole world despite major inequalities. Hygiene, vaccination, antibiotics and the advent of modern medicine account for these advances. It is remarkable that this was made possible by the contributions of most disciplinary fields of science (from mathematics -clinical trials methodology-, physics -imaging-, chemistry, molecular biology and now computing science. Reductionnist approaches of medical problems were succesfil in many instances although, most diseases require to be now tackled in a more systemic manner, Development of a new class of drugs,i.e. biologicals, from monoclonal antibodies to DNA and RNA therapies is an hallmark of medicine over the last 30 years, notably in the fields of cancer, autoimmune and genetic diseases. Neverteless, challenges are numerous, from neurodegenerattive disorders, mental health to environment-driven conditions.

Biotechnological advances are not going to be the ultimate solution to health care. Societal issues of health, including appropriate interactions between patients and health care providers in the context of an aging population, education, acceptability of new advances (think of vaccination) and accessibilty related to rising cost of health and inequal distribution are major challenges that our societies will have to face.

About the speaker

Prof. Alain Fischer studied medicine, with a specialization in pediatrics and immunology at the Université of Paris. After completing a postdoctoral fellowship at the University College London, he started independent research in an INSERM unit at the Necker Hospital in Paris. From 2009 to 2016, he was the director of the Institute for Genetic Diseases (Imagine) at Necker University Hospital. Dr Fischer also served as a professor of pediatric immunology at the Université Paris Descartes. From 1996 to 2012, he has served as the director of the pediatric immunology department at the Necker Hospital.

Dr Fischer was Professor at College de France (chaire Claude Bernard from 2014 to 2020). Dr Fischer's main research interests are gene therapy, primary immunodeficiency diseases, and the development of the lymphoid system. Dr Fischer received the Louis Jeantet Prize for Medicine in 2001 and the Japan Prize 2015. He is a member of the French and US National Academies of Science and Medicine. He served as president of the French Academy of science in the years 2023 and 2024

The Hubert Curien Memorial Lectures

The Cyprus Institute founded the Hubert Curien Memorial Lectures Series, in honor of the late Prof. Hubert Curien (1924-2005), a Trustee of CREF and founding Chair of its International Council. Prof. Hubert Curien, a physicist, is regarded as one of the most influential scientists and science policy makers of the 20th century. After an involvement in the French resistance at the end of World War II, Hubert Curien graduated from the École Normale Supérieure. His scientific work was devoted to crystallography and he became an Assistant Professor at Paris University at the age of 27 and Professor five years later.

He worked at CNRS as the Head of Physical Sciences Division and soon after as Director General. He served as Minister for Research (in several governments under the presidency of F. Mitterrand), but he never stopped teaching during all those years. He assumed a number of leading positions within European Science: President of the European Science Foundation, President of the European Space Agency, President of the Academia Europaea, President of CERN Council, as well as in France, where he had been President of Académié des Sciences de France and in numerous science boards.

He was highly respected for his devotion to science, his openness and his generosity to people. His contribution in the planning and realization of The Cyprus Institute was pivotal and profound.

Previous Hubert Curien Memorial Lectures

2022 Prof. Jean-Philippe Bouchaud, École Normale Supérieure, Paris & Founder and Chairman of Capital Fund Management (CFM)
2020 Prof. Marc Mézard, Director of Ecole Normale Supérieure
2019 Prof. Jeffrey D. Sachs, Director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University, Director of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network, Commissioner of the ITU/UNESCO Broadband Commission for Development, and Member of The Cyprus Institute Board of Trustees
2018 Dr Janez Potočnik, Former EU Commissioner for Environment & Member of The Cyprus Institute Board of Trustees
2016 Prof. Jean-Pierre Bourguignon, President of the European Research Council (ERC)
2015 Prof. Daniel Cohen, Professor of Economics at the École Normale Supérieure, at the Université de Paris-I and at the École d'économie de Paris, France
2014 Carlo Rubbia, Nobel Prize in Physics, Scientific Director IASS Potsdam, Former Director General of CERN
2012-2013 Edouard Brézin, former President of the French Academy of Sciences, Chairman of Board of Trustees of The Cyprus Institute, and Herwig Schopper, former Director General of CERN, Emeritus Trustee of The Cyprus Institute
2011 Anastasios P. Leventis, Director of the Leventis Group International Companies and Chairman of the A.G. Leventis Foundation
2010 Richard N. Cooper, Professor of International Economics, Harvard University, USA
2009 Apostolos P. Georgopoulos, Professor of Neuroscience, Neurology and Psychiatry, University of Minnesota, USA
2008 Paul Crutzen (on his behalf Jos Lelieveld), Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Emeritus Director of the Atmospheric Chemistry Division of the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry, Mainz, Germany, and Professor at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography of the University of California at San Diego, USA
2007 Harold Varmus, Nobel Prize in Medicine, Lewis Thomas University Professor of Medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine, USA
2006 José Mariano Gago, Minister of Science and Higher Education, Portugal

                               

 

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