2009 | France | Short

The Hidden Life of Our Genes

  • 52 mins
  • Director | Hervé Nisic
  • Writer | Hervé Nisic
  • Producer | Hervé Nisic

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The epigenetic revolution: a new scientific revolution is underway. Our genome, this “great book of life” triumphantly deciphered at the end of the 90s, provided few solutions to our questions.

Cloned cats of different colors? Twins who develop opposite pathologies? The genome is in fact only part of a much larger and little-known whole, which scientists call the epigenome, and which is constantly changing depending on how we treat ourselves, how we eat, how we we live. This epigenetic revolution is profoundly changing our understanding of life and its relationship to the environment. It opens a new point of view on aging and illness.

Epigenetic therapies, currently being developed, are very promising for combating obesity, cancer and neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's or Parkinson's. As with all new research, the potential applications of epigenetics arouse as much hope from patients as they do from the appetite of manufacturers who see it as a new El Dorado... Epigenetics, the plasticity of the genes of all beings ( animals, plants) simply explains the natural adaptability of living things and clarifies the boundaries between innate and acquired.

The film is based on meetings with researchers all over Europe. The positions of scientists are illustrated by real or metaphorical sequences as well as by experiments carried out where this research is being developed.

scientist illness Alzheimer epigenetic cat Clone