Online conferences
Aging and End-of-life: from flies to human beings
Webinar on April 30, 2026
Re-conceptualization of aging and End-of-life developed from animal models.
Michael RERA presents the general issues involved in defining aging, the discovery of Smurfs in Drosophila and how this end-of-life phenotype has enabled the re-conceptualization of aging as a discontinuous phenomenon, which his team has validated in nematodes, zebrafish and mice. He explains what this re-conceptualization implies for our understanding of human aging.
His colleague Clément DUBOST presents the BlueRéa clinical trial, which started in January 2025 and aims to validate the aging model.
Speakers:
- Michael RERA, DR CNRS, HDR, Functional and Adaptive Biology Unit (BFA) of Université Paris Cité and CNRS.
Since 2005, he has been working to understand aging: its causes, consequences and evolution. He has developed a two-phase model of aging since the first description of the Smurf phenotype in Drosophila (Drosophila melanogaster) and founded his "Understanding the end of life" (UTELife) research group in 2018. His research project is resolutely transdisciplinary, at the crossroads of fundamental biology, genetics, physiology, bioinformatics and mathematical modeling. - Clément DUBOST: head of the intensive care unit at the Hôpital d'Instruction des Armées Bégin. With his team, he is interested in the objective and reproducible quantification of consciousness disorders, whether induced (general anaesthesia) or in intensive care patients.
Research guidelines for France on medical aid in dying
Webinar on September 23, 2025
As France prepares to legalize medical aid in dying, this topic is gaining increasing importance in public health, as well as in end-of-life research.
In Belgium, this practice has been studied for over 25 years. Despite this long tradition, significant gaps remain. Professor Joachim COHEN presents Belgian research and suggests potential directions for future research projects in France.
Speaker:
Joachim COHEN, Professor of Public Health and Palliative Care at Vrije Universiteit Brussel (Belgium) and member of the End-of-Life Care Research Group.
Secularity and religious rituals at the end of life in Japan
Webinar on November 27, 2025
What are Japan's traditional conceptions of death and religion? How have they evolved? As a result, how has the way Japanese people die changed? The recurring theme of this conference is how to guide the soul of the dying and properly treat their remains. Professor Kasai illustrates this reflection through the example of Buddhism.
Speaker:
Kenta KASAI, Ph.D., Professor, the Graduate School for Applied Religious Studies, Sophia University;
Senior Fellow at the Institute of Grief Care, Sophia University
Current scientific and human issues in pain research
Webinar on March 26, 2026
Current issues and questions guiding thinking and research on pain.
Pain is a complex and paradoxical human experience: a collective and universal experience par excellence, it nevertheless remains particularly idiosyncratic. Although it has affected humanity since the dawn of time, its management has only become a legal obligation in France since the March 4, 2002 law on patients' rights. While the management of acute pain, particularly procedural pain, is well codified and effective, the same cannot be said for chronic pain, which remains insufficiently relieved to this day, despite numerous conceptual and scientific advances. Current research is striving to better understand the painful experience in its biological, human and social expression. Thinking about (and treating) pain can therefore only be conceived from a translational, multidisciplinary, multi-thematic and multi-faceted perspective.
Speaker: Nathan MOREAU, oral surgeon and neurobiologist, university professor at the UFR d'Odontologie, Faculté de Santé, UMR-S 1333 Santé orale, INSERM/Université Paris Cité, hospital practitioner in oral medicine and surgery at Hôpital Bretonneau in Paris (AP-HP).
Young caregivers' experience of the end of life and the death of a loved one
Webinar on January 8, 2024
In France, nearly 500,000 young caregivers (under 18) and young adult caregivers (under 25) provide significant and regular help to a loved one who is ill or suffering from a disability. Nevertheless, few studies have qualitatively explored their experiences, particularly with regard to end-of-life situations and the death of the loved one being cared for. As part of an exploratory study, semi-structured interviews were conducted with young adult carers whose loved one had died, and subjected to thematic content analysis.
The aim of these interviews was to explore their experiences of the help provided on a daily basis from the time of the diagnosis announcement until the moment of the loved one's death, considering the emotions felt during the end-of-life period, the difficulties encountered, and the needs and resources expressed by these young people. The study also explored how the latter experience the bereavement of the loved one being helped.
This research was funded as part of the AMI Fin de vie 2021 of the Plateforme nationale pour la recherche sur la fin de vie, as well as by the Société française d'accompagnement et de soins palliatifs (SFAP), with the collaboration of the national association Jeunes AiDants Ensemble (JADE).
Intervenors.s:
- Morgane MESPLÈDE, research psychologist, SFAP/Jeunes Aidants Ensemble
- Cécile FLAHAULT, maîtresse de conférences HDR, Université Paris Cité
- Nicolas EL HAÏK-WAGNER, doctoral student in sociology, Cnam
- Jade PILATO, psychologist and doctoral student in psychology, Université Paris Cité.
The challenges of mainstream schooling for students in palliative situations
Webinar of March 8, 2022
In the collective imagination, a sick or palliative child does not continue to attend school. They may, however, wish to continue their schooling in an ordinary environment. In such cases, the regional pediatric palliative care resource teams (ERRSPP) offer to support the child's plans. For teachers, who are at the heart of the student's school life, this type of situation is likely to generate stress and anxiety. And yet, the more the teaching team feels supported, the better the experience will be for the young person and his or her family. The aim of the qualitative study to be presented at this webinar is to explore the representations, experiences and practices of primary and secondary school teachers with regard to support for pupils who are ill and in palliative situations at school, a priori and a posteriori, and to provide leads for adjusting support for teachers faced with these situations. By offering a fairly broad description of the experience and representations of support for serious illness and the end of life in the school environment, this study provides clues to guide information, awareness-raising and training approaches for players in the world of education and school medicine, but also for external players such as ERRSPPs.
This research was launched by the Young Generations working group of the Société française d'accompagnement et de soins Palliatifs (SFAP), in partnership with the Laboratoire de psychopathologie et processus de santé at the University of Paris and the Société de soins palliatifs pédiatriques, thanks to support from Helebor.
Intervenors:
- Marie SONRIER, clinical psychologist and researcher
- Nicolas EL HAÏK WAGNER, co-leader of SFAP Young Generations
- Cécile FLAHAULT, HDR lecturer in psychopathology - LPPS, University of Paris
- Camille REICHLING, clinical psychologist, ERRSPP PACA Ouest (Marseille)
Scandal at Paris Descartes University and "misuse" of bodies donated to science?
Webinar on March 29, 2022
This conference on March 29, 2022 tackles the subject of "useful death".
The question of body donation will be addressed using the example of Paris Descartes and the scandal that took place, showing how this scandal sheds light on the hiatus that exists around representations of the usefulness of the body in the scientific context and the perception of it by the general public and donors' families. This confrontation also engages the question of the "dignified treatment" (including the demand for funeral treatment) of dead bodies that have been donated.
Speakers:
- Valérie ROBIN AZEVEDO, professor of social and cultural anthropology at the University of Paris Descartes, member of URMIS, scientific leader of the ANR Transfunéraire research program. Her publications in 2020 include [Im]matérialités de la mort (CNRS Editions).
- Clara DUTERME, research engineer in social anthropology at Aix-Marseille Université, ADES UMR 7268, manager of the ANR Transfunéraire research program.