4 December 2025

5:05 PM – 5:50 PM

Amphi Petit Kursaal

Marcel Hibert

Marcel Hibert is professor emeritus at the Faculty of Pharmacy at the University of Strasbourg. After a career in the pharmaceutical industry, he spent 20 years heading the Laboratory for Therapeutic Innovation (UMR7200 CNRS/University of Strasbourg), which combines fundamental and applied research in the chemistry of living organisms. He created the National Chemistry Library and contributed to the discovery and development of a drug (Dolasetron) and several drug candidates for anxiety, schizophrenia, and Alzheimer’s disease. He is currently interested in the molecular mechanisms of love in all its forms, which has led to the discovery of a first potential treatment for the primary symptoms of autism. He is a member of the National Academy of Pharmacy and has been awarded the CNRS Silver Medal. He is the author of three popular science essays published by Tana and HumenSciences.

Is even love chemistry?

“Everything is made of atoms and empty space,” claimed Democritus in 430 BC. Modern science confirms this intuition. All living beings, and in particular all human beings, are dynamic, self-reproducing clusters of molecules that interact and exchange with their environment. These molecules are made up of atoms, dust from dead stars, which will return to Mother Nature after their fleeting passage through our beautiful bodies. Life is therefore chemistry, but what can chemists say about it? And above all, what don’t they know? What do they know about death? What do they know about love? What am I? Who am I? We currently know most of the molecules in our bodies, we know that the most basic biological functions result from specific molecular interactions, but our understanding of overall physiological and psychological functions inevitably comes up against the immeasurable complexity of the cascades and networks of molecular interactions that occur at every moment, over very short or sometimes very long periods of time. However, chemists can sometimes find a sensitive point, a molecule that is capable of modulating an important function. This is the case with oxytocin and love. Let’s take a look.