Bacteria are the oldest living organisms on the earth. They've been here for billions of years, and what they are are single-celled microscopic organisms. So they're one cell and they have this special property that they only have one piece of DNA. So they have very few genes and genetic information to encode all of the traits that they carry out. And the way bacteria make a living is that they consume nutrients from the environment, they grow to twice their size, they cut themselves down in the middle, and one cell becomes two, and so on and so on. They just grow and divide and grow and divide -- so a kind of boring life, except that what I would argue is that you have an amazing interaction with these critters.
As bacterias son os organismos máis antigos que viven na Terra. Levan aquí miles de millóns de anos sendo organismos microscópicos unicelulares. Cada bacteria é unha única célula coa propiedade especial de ter soamente un fragmento de ADN Teñen moi poucos xenes, e esta información xénica codifica todas as súas funcións. As bacterias viven do seguinte xeito: consomen nutrientes do medio, crecen dobrando o seu tamaño, córtanse pola metade, unha célula convértese en dúas, e así unha e outra vez. Crecen e divídense, crecen e divídense --é unha vida aburrida-- excepto porque vostedes teñen unhas interaccións incribles con estes bichos.
I know you guys think of yourself as humans, and this is sort of how I think of you. This man is supposed to represent a generic human being, and all of the circles in that man are all the cells that make up your body. There's about a trillion human cells that make each one of us who we are and able to do all the things that we do. But you have 10 trillion bacterial cells in you or on you at any moment in your life. So, 10 times more bacterial cells than human cells on a human being. And, of course, it's the DNA that counts, so here's all the A, T, Gs and Cs that make up your genetic code and give you all your charming characteristics. You have about 30,000 genes. Well, it turns out you have 100 times more bacterial genes playing a role in you or on you all of your life. So at the best, you're 10 percent human; more likely, about one percent human, depending on which of these metrics you like. I know you think of yourself as human beings, but I think of you as 90 or 99 percent bacterial.
Vós védesvos como humanos, e en parte é o que penso de vós. Este home representa supostamente un ser humano tipo, e cada círculo nel é unha célula que forma o seu corpo. Hai arredor dun billón de células humanas que fan de nós quen somos e permítennos facer o que facemos, pero vostedes teñen 10 billóns de células bacterianas dentro ou encima, en calquera intre da súa vida. Hai 10 veces máis células bacterianas que células humanas nun ser humano. E por suposto é o ADN o que conta, aquí temos todos os A, T, G e C que forman os xenes, responsables das súas peculiaridades. Vostedes teñen sobre 30.000 xenes. Ben, pois teñen 100 veces máis xenes bacterianos que xogan un papel en ou sobre vostedes durante toda a vida. No mellor dos casos, son un 10% humanos, pero máis probablemente só un 1%, dependendo do parámetro que prefiran. Sei que se consideran seres humanos, pero eu penso en vostedes como en bacterias nun 90 ou 99%.
(Laughter)
(Risas)
And these bacteria are not passive riders. These are incredibly important; they keep us alive. They cover us in an invisible body armor that keeps environmental insults out so that we stay healthy. They digest our food, they make our vitamins, they actually educate your immune system to keep bad microbes out. So they do all these amazing things that help us and are vital for keeping us alive, and they never get any press for that. But they get a lot of press because they do a lot of terrible things as well. So there's all kinds of bacteria on the earth that have no business being in you or on you at any time, and if they are, they make you incredibly sick.
Estas bacterias non son pasaxeiros pasivos, son moi importantes, mantéñennos vivos. Cóbrennos cunha armadura invisible que nos protexe do contorno manténdonos así sans. Dixiren a nosa comida, producen vitaminas, educan o noso sistema inmune para impedir a entrada dos microbios nocivos. Fan todas estas cousas incribles que nos axudan e son vitais para manternos vivos, e nunca nos acordamos delas por iso. Pero si que nos acordamos por facer cousas terribles. Sobre a Terra existen moitos tipos de bacterias que mellor que non estean nunca en ou sobre vostedes, pois se están, poñeríanse moi enfermos.
And so the question for my lab is whether you want to think about all the good things that bacteria do or all the bad things that bacteria do. The question we had is: How could they do anything at all? I mean, they're incredibly small. You have to have a microscope to see one. They live this sort of boring life where they grow and divide, and they've always been considered to be these asocial, reclusive organisms. And so it seemed to us that they're just too small to have an impact on the environment if they simply act as individuals. So we wanted to think if there couldn't be a different way that bacteria live.
Por isto, a pregunta no meu laboratorio non é pensar en todas as cousas boas ou malas que as bacterias fan. A pregunta que nos formulamos é como poden facer algo? Quero dicir: son incriblemente pequenas, necesítase un microscopio para velas. Viven esta vida aburrida onde só crecen e se dividen e sempre foron consideradas organismos asociais e solitarios. Ademais parécenos que son pequenas de máis para influír sobre o medio se actúan unicamente como individuos. E así, demos en pensar se podería ser que as bacterias vivisen de forma distinta
And the clue to this came from another marine bacterium, and it's a bacterium called "Vibrio fischeri." What you're looking at on this slide is just a person from my lab holding a flask of a liquid culture of a bacterium, a harmless, beautiful bacterium that comes from the ocean, named Vibrio fischeri. And this bacterium has the special property that it makes light, so it makes bioluminescence, like fireflies make light. We're not doing anything to the cells here, we just took the picture by turning the lights off in the room, and this is what we see.
A clave para isto veu doutra bacteria mariña, chamada Vibrio fischeri. O que vedes nesta diapositiva é unha persoa do meu laboratorio termando dun matraz co cultivo líquido da bacteria, esta inofensiva e fermosa bacteria procede do océano, chámase Vibrio fischeri. E ten a propiedade especial de que produce luz, produce bioluminiscencia, igual ca os vagalumes. Non lles estamos a facer nada ás células. Só tiramos a foto coas luces apagadas, e velaí o que se ve.
And what's actually interesting to us was not that the bacteria made light but when the bacteria made light. What we noticed is when the bacteria were alone, so when they were in dilute suspension, they made no light. But when they grew to a certain cell number, all the bacteria turned on light simultaneously. So the question that we had is: How can bacteria, these primitive organisms, tell the difference from times when they're alone and times when they're in a community, and then all do something together? And what we figured out is that the way they do that is they talk to each other, and they talk with a chemical language.
O que é realmente interesante para nós non é que as bacterias produzan luz, senón cando a producen. Detectamos que cando as bacterias están soas é dicir, cando están nunha suspensión diluída , non fan luz. Pero ao acadaren un certo número todas elas "acéndense" á vez. E preguntámonos como as bacterias, estes organismos primitivos, saben cando están soas, e cando se atopan en comunidade, e entón comezan a facer algo xuntas. O que descubrimos é que fan todo isto falando unhas coas outras, e que falan usando unha linguaxe química.
So this is now supposed to be my bacterial cell. When it's alone, it doesn't make any light. But what it does do is to make and secrete small molecules that you can think of like hormones, and these are the red triangles. And when the bacteria are alone, the molecules just float away, and so, no light. But when the bacteria grow and double and they're all participating in making these molecules, the molecule, the extracellular amount of that molecule, increases in proportion to cell number. And when the molecule hits a certain amount that tells the bacteria how many neighbors there are, they recognize that molecule and all of the bacteria turn on light in synchrony. And so that's how bioluminescence works -- they're talking with these chemical words.
Supoñamos que isto é a miña célula bacteriana. Cando está soa non fai luz. pero si produce e segrega unhas pequenas moléculas que actúan como as hormonas (son estes triángulos vermellos), e cando a bacteria está soa as moléculas só flotan e non hai luz. Pero cando as bacteria aumentan e todas producen estas moléculas, a molécula (a cantidade extracelular dela) aumenta proporcionalmente ao número de células. E cando a molécula chega a unha certa cantidade que lle indica ás bacterias cantas veciñas están aí, elas recoñecen a molécula e todas producen luz en sincronía. Así funciona a bioluminiscencia, elas falan con palabras químicas.
The reason Vibrio fischeri is doing that comes from the biology -- again, another plug for the animals in the ocean. Vibrio fischeri lives in this squid. What you're looking at is the Hawaiian bobtail squid. It's been turned on its back, and what I hope you can see are these two glowing lobes. These house the Vibrio fischeri cells. They live in there, at high cell number. That molecule is there, and they're making light. And the reason the squid is willing to put up with these shenanigans is because it wants that light.
A razón pola que Vibrio fischeri o fai procede da bioloxía. Máis publicidade para os animais do océano, Vibrio fischeri vive dentro desta lura. Velaquí a lura hawaiana de rabo curto, que está virado de costas, e espero que poidades ver estes dous lóbulos relucentes que acollen as células de Vibrio fischeri, elas viven aí, a molécula atópase aí, e están producindo luz. A razón pola que a lura está disposta a aturar estes diaños é porque quere esa luz.
The way that this symbiosis works is that this little squid lives just off the coast of Hawaii, just in sort of shallow knee-deep water. And the squid is nocturnal, so during the day, it buries itself in the sand and sleeps. But then at night, it has to come out to hunt. So on bright nights when there's lots of starlight or moonlight, that light can penetrate the depth of the water the squid lives in, since it's just in those couple feet of water. What the squid has developed is a shutter that can open and close over the specialized light organ housing the bacteria. And then it has detectors on its back so it can sense how much starlight or moonlight is hitting its back. And it opens and closes the shutter so the amount of light coming out of the bottom, which is made by the bacterium, exactly matches how much light hits the squid's back, so the squid doesn't make a shadow. So it actually uses the light from the bacteria to counter-illuminate itself in an antipredation device, so predators can't see its shadow, calculate its trajectory and eat it. So this is like the stealth bomber of the ocean.
A simbiose funciona así: a lura vive cerca da costa de Hawai en augas tranquilas e pouco profundas. É nocturna, polo que durante o día sotérrase na area e dorme; pero de noite sae de caza. Nas noites claras, de luar ou estreladas esa luz pode penetrar ata a profundidade onde vive a lura, apenas un metro de auga. A lura desenvolveu un obturador que abre e pecha o órgano luminoso que acolle as bacterias. Ten uns sensores no lombo que detectan canta claridade lle chega a el. O obturador abre ou pecha de modo que a luz emitida pola parte inferior --que é producida pola bacteria-- é a mesma que chega ao lombo da lura, e así, a lura non produce sombra. De feito, usa a luz das bacterias para contrailuminarse como un mecanismo antipredación xa que os predadores non poden ver a súa sombra, calcular a súa traxectoria, e comela. Como se fose o bombardeiro furtivo do océano.
(Laughter)
(Risas)
But then if you think about it, this squid has this terrible problem, because it's got this dying, thick culture of bacteria, and it can't sustain that. And so what happens is, every morning when the sun comes up, the squid goes back to sleep, it buries itself in the sand, and it's got a pump that's attached to its circadian rhythm. And when the sun comes up, it pumps out, like, 95 percent of the bacteria. So now the bacteria are dilute, that little hormone molecule is gone, so they're not making light. But, of course, the squid doesn't care, it's asleep in the sand. And as the day goes by, the bacteria double, they release the molecule, and then light comes on at night, exactly when the squid wants it.
Pero se pensades nisto, a lura ten un terrible problema porque ten un gran cultivo de bacterias moribundas que non pode manter continuamente. O que fai é que, cada maña cando sae o sol a lura volve durmir, sotérrase na area, e ten unha bomba ligada ao seu ritmo circadiano, e cando alborece expele o 95% das bacterias. Agora as bacterias están diluídas, non hai moléculas abondas, así que elas non producen luz, pero á lura élle igual. Está durmindo na area. Ao longo do día as bacterias duplícanse, liberan a molécula, e a luz acéndese de noite, exactamente cando a lura quere.
So first, we figured out how this bacterium does this, but then we brought the tools of molecular biology to this to figure out, really, what's the mechanism. And what we found -- so this is now supposed to be my bacterial cell -- is that Vibrio fischeri has a protein. That's the red box -- it's an enzyme that makes that little hormone molecule, the red triangle. And then as the cells grow, they're all releasing that molecule into the environment, so there's lots of molecule there. And the bacteria also have a receptor on their cell surface that fits like a lock and key with that molecule. These are just like the receptors on the surfaces of your cells. So when the molecule increases to a certain amount, which says something about the number of cells, it locks down into that receptor and information comes into the cells that tells the cells to turn on this collective behavior of making light.
Primeiro descubrimos como facía isto a bacteria, logo empregamos as ferramentas da bioloxía molecular para descifrar como é de verdade o mecanismo. E o que atopamos --supoñamos que esta é outra vez a miña bacteria-- é que Vibrio fischeri ten una proteína --a caixa vermella--, é un enzima que produce esa pequena molécula --o triángulo vermello. Mentres as células crecen liberan a molécula ao medio ambiente, polo que hai moitas moléculas. E a célula tamén ten un receptor na súa superficie celular que encaixa coa molécula coma unha chave nunha pechadura Son xusto coma os receptores da superficie das vosas células. Cando a molécula aumenta ata certa cantidade --o que ten relación co número de células-- encaixa no receptor e a información entra nas células para dicirlle a estas que activen o comportamento colectivo de facer luz.
Why this is interesting is because in the past decade, we have found that this is not just some anomaly of this ridiculous, glow-in-the-dark bacterium that lives in the ocean -- all bacteria have systems like this. So now what we understand is that all bacteria can talk to each other. They make chemical words, they recognize those words, and they turn on group behaviors that are only successful when all of the cells participate in unison. So now we have a fancy name for this: we call it "quorum sensing." They vote with these chemical votes, the vote gets counted, and then everybody responds to the vote.
Isto é interesante porque na década pasada atopamos que non é unha anomalía desta ridícula bacteria brillante que vive no océano: todas as bacterias teñen sistemas semellantes a esta. Agora entendemos que todas as bacterias falan unhas con outras. Emiten unhas palabra químicas, recoñécenas, e activan o comportamento grupal que só ten éxito cando as células cooperan ao unísono. Nós chamámoslle a isto "percepción do quórum" Elas votan con eses votos químicos, os votos cóntanse, e logo todo o mundo responde ao resultado.
What's important for today's talk is we know there are hundreds of behaviors that bacteria carry out in these collective fashions. But the one that's probably the most important to you is virulence. It's not like a couple bacteria get in you and start secreting some toxins -- you're enormous; that would have no effect on you, you're huge. But what they do, we now understand, is they get in you, they wait, they start growing, they count themselves with these little molecules, and they recognize when they have the right cell number that if all of the bacteria launch their virulence attack together, they're going to be successful at overcoming an enormous host. So bacteria always control pathogenicity with quorum sensing. So that's how it works.
O máis importante da charla de hoxe é que sabemos que hai centos de condutas que as bacterias executan de xeito colectivo. Mais, probablemente o máis importante para vós é a virulencia. Non é que un par de bacterias entren en vós e comecen a segregar toxinas --vós sodes enormes-- que non vos farían efecto ningún. O que fan, agora o entendemos, é entrar en vós, esperar, empezar a crecer, recontarse coas moléculas e recoñecer cando son o número abondo para --se lanzan xuntas o seu ataque virulento-- teren éxito ao bater a un enorme anfitrión. As bacterias sempre controlan a patoxenicidade coa percepción do quórum Así funcionan.
We also then went to look at what are these molecules. These were the red triangles on my slides before. This is the Vibrio fischeri molecule. This is the word that it talks with. And then we started to look at other bacteria, and these are just a smattering of the molecules that we've discovered. What I hope you can see is that the molecules are related. The left-hand part of the molecule is identical in every single species of bacteria. But the right-hand part of the molecule is a little bit different in every single species. What that does is to confer exquisite species specificities to these languages. So each molecule fits into its partner receptor and no other. So these are private, secret conversations. These conversations are for intraspecies communication. Each bacteria uses a particular molecule that's its language that allows it to count its own siblings.
Tamén observamos que son estas moléculas --estes son os triángulos vermellos nas miñas diapositivas. Esta é a molécula de Vibrio fischeri. Esta é a palabra con que se comunica. Entón comezamos a observar outras bacterias, e estas son só unha mostra das moléculas que atopamos. O que espero que poidan ver é que as moléculas están relacionadas. A parte esquerda da molécula é idéntica en todas as especies de bacteria. Mais a parte dereita é un chisco diferente en cada especie. O que lle confire unha especificidade exquisita a estas linguaxes. Cada molécula encaixa no seu receptor e non noutro. Polo que estas son conversacións privadas, secretas. Estas conversacións son para comunicarse dentro da mesma especie. Cada bacteria usa a súa molécula que é a súa linguaxe que lle permite contar as súas irmás.
Once we got that far, we thought we were starting to understand that bacteria have these social behaviors. But what we were really thinking about is that most of the time, bacteria don't live by themselves, they live in incredible mixtures, with hundreds or thousands of other species of bacteria. And that's depicted on this slide. This is your skin. So this is just a picture -- a micrograph of your skin. Anywhere on your body, it looks pretty much like this. What I hope you can see is that there's all kinds of bacteria there. And so we started to think, if this really is about communication in bacteria, and it's about counting your neighbors, it's not enough to be able to only talk within your species. There has to be a way to take a census of the rest of the bacteria in the population.
Cando chegamos ata aquí pensamos que comezamos a entender que as bacterias teñen condutas sociais. Mais o que de verdade pensabamos é que a maior parte do tempo as bacterias non viven soas, viven en mesturas incribles, con centos ou miles doutras especies de bacterias. É o que se representa nesta diapositiva. Esta é a súa pel. Isto é soamente unha imaxe --unha micrografía da súa pel. Calquera lugar do corpo, parécese moito a isto, e espero que poidan ver que aí hai todo tipo de bacterias. Entón, comezamos a pensar que se realmente a comunicación entre bacterias ten que ver con contar os veciños, non abonda con falar só cos da túa especie. Ten que existir un xeito de censar ao resto de bacterias na poboación.
So we went back to molecular biology and started studying different bacteria. And what we've found now is that, in fact, bacteria are multilingual. They all have a species-specific system, they have a molecule that says "me." But then running in parallel to that is a second system that we've discovered, that's generic. So they have a second enzyme that makes a second signal, and it has its own receptor, and this molecule is the trade language of bacteria. It's used by all different bacteria, and it's the language of interspecies communication. What happens is that bacteria are able to count how many of "me" and how many of "you." And they take that information inside, and they decide what tasks to carry out depending on who's in the minority and who's in the majority of any given population.
Polo que volvemos á bioloxía molecular e comezamos a estudar diferentes bacterias, e o que atopamos agora foi que en realidade, as bacterias son políglotas. Todas teñen un sistema específico por especie --unha molécula que di "eu". Pero vai en paralelo a un segundo sistema que descubrimos, que é xenérico. Elas teñen un segundo enzima que fai un segundo sinal e ten o seu propio receptor, e esta molécula é a lingua internacional das bacterias. Todas a empregan e é a lingua de comunicación entre especies. As bacterias son capaces de contar cantos "eu" e cantos "ti" hai. Elas recollen esa información, e deciden que tarefas fan dependendo de quen estea en minoría e quen en maioría dunha poboación determinada.
Then, again, we turned to chemistry, and we figured out what this generic molecule is -- that was the pink ovals on my last slide, this is it. It's a very small, five-carbon molecule. And what the important thing is that we learned is that every bacterium has exactly the same enzyme and makes exactly the same molecule. So they're all using this molecule for interspecies communication. This is the bacterial Esperanto.
Outra vez voltamos a química, e atopamos que esta molécula xenérica é --son os óvalos rosas da miña última diapositiva-- é moi pequena, unha molécula de 5 átomos de carbonos. O importante é que aprendemos que cada bacteria ten exactamente o mesmo enzima e fai exactamente a mesma molécula. Todas usan esta molécula para comunicarse entre especies. Velaquí o esperanto bacteriano.
(Laughter)
(Risas)
So once we got that far, we started to learn that bacteria can talk to each other with this chemical language. But we started to think that maybe there is something practical that we can do here as well. I've told you that bacteria have all these social behaviors, that they communicate with these molecules. Of course, I've also told you that one of the important things they do is to initiate pathogenicity using quorum sensing. So we thought: What if we made these bacteria so they can't talk or they can't hear? Couldn't these be new kinds of antibiotics?
Chegados ata aquí, comezamos a comprender que as bacterias falan entre si con esta linguaxe química. Pero comezamos a pensar se haberá algo práctico que poidamos facer aquí. Díxenlles que as bacterias teñen todas estas condutas sociais, que se comunican con estas moléculas. Tamén lles dixen que una das cousas máis importantes que fan é iniciar a patoxenicidade usando a percepción do quórum. Nós pensamos, e se facemos que as bacterias non poidan falar ou escoitar? Non podería ser un novo tipo de antibiótico?
And of course, you've just heard and you already know that we're running out of antibiotics. Bacteria are incredibly multi-drug-resistant right now, and that's because all of the antibiotics that we use kill bacteria. They either pop the bacterial membrane, they make the bacterium so it can't replicate its DNA. We kill bacteria with traditional antibiotics, and that selects for resistant mutants. And so now, of course, we have this global problem in infectious diseases. So we thought, what if we could sort of do behavior modifications, just make these bacteria so they can't talk, they can't count, and they don't know to launch virulence?
Seguro que xa escoitastes e sabedes que estamos quedando sen antibióticos. Neste momento, as bacterias son incriblemente resistentes, porque os antibióticos que usamos matan as bacterias. Rebentan a membrana bacteriana, ou fan que a bacteria non poida replicar o seu ADN. Cos antibióticos tradicionais, nós matamos as bacterias, o que selecciona as mutacións resistentes. E así, agora temos este problema global de enfermidades infecciosas. Nós pensamos: e se puideramos cambiar dalgún modo o seu comportamento, facenr que estas bacterias non poidan falar ou contar, e así, tampouco producir virulencia?
So that's exactly what we've done, and we've sort of taken two strategies. The first one is, we've targeted the intraspecies communication system. So we made molecules that look kind of like the real molecules, which you saw, but they're a little bit different. And so they lock into those receptors, and they jam recognition of the real thing. So by targeting the red system, what we are able to do is make species-specific, or disease-specific, anti-quorum-sensing molecules. We've also done the same thing with the pink system. We've taken that universal molecule and turned it around a little bit so that we've made antagonists of the interspecies communication system. The hope is that these will be used as broad-spectrum antibiotics that work against all bacteria.
E fixemos exactamente iso, empregando dúas estratexias. A primeira tivo como obxectivo o sistema de comunicación dentro da mesma especie. Fixemos moléculas similares ás moléculas reais --velaquí as tedes-- mais un chisco distintas. Encaixan nos receptores, e bloquean o recoñecemento da molécula real. Poñendo como obxectivo o sistema vermello somos capaces de obter moleculas antipercepción do quórum específicas para especies ou para enfermidades. Tamén fixemos o mesmo co sistema rosa. Collemos a molécula universal e cambiámoslle un fragmento, co que obtivemos antagonistas do sistema de comunicación entre especies. A esperanza é que isto poida empregarse como antibióticos de amplo espectro que funcionen contra todas as bacterias.
And so to finish, I'll show you the strategy. In this one, I'm just using the interspecies molecule, but the logic is exactly the same. So what you know is that when that bacterium gets into the animal -- in this case, a mouse -- it doesn't initiate virulence right away. It gets in, it starts growing, it starts secreting its quorum-sensing molecules. It recognizes when it has enough bacteria that now they're going to launch their attack, and the animal dies. And so what we've been able to do is to give these virulent infections, but we give them in conjunction with our anti-quorum-sensing molecules. So these are molecules that look kind of like the real thing, but they're a little different, which I've depicted on this slide. What we now know is that if we treat the animal with a pathogenic bacterium -- a multi-drug-resistant pathogenic bacterium -- in the same time we give our anti-quorum-sensing molecule, in fact, the animal lives.
Para rematar, déixenme amosarlles a estratexia. Nesta emprego unha molécula interespecie. pero a lóxica é a mesma. O que sabemos é que cando unha bacteria entra nun animal, neste caso, un rato, non comeza a virulencia inmediatamente. Entra, comeza a medrar, empeza a segregar as moléculas de percepción do quórum. Recoñece cando hai bacterias abondas e entón lanzan o seu ataque, e o animal morre. O que fixemos foi producir estas infeccións virulentas, pero engadindo moléculas antipercepción do quórum --estas moléculas seméllanse ás reais, pero son algo diferentes, como se ve na diapositiva. Agora sabemos que se tratamos o animal cunha bacteria patóxena --unha bacteria multirresistente-- ao mesmo tempo que lle damos moléculas antipercepción do quórum, de feito, o animal vive.
And so we think that this is the next generation of antibiotics, and it's going to get us around, at least initially, this big problem of resistance. What I hope you think is that bacteria can talk to each other, they use chemicals as their words, they have an incredibly complicated chemical lexicon that we're just now starting to learn about. Of course, what that allows bacteria to do is to be multicellular. So in the spirit of TED, they're doing things together because it makes a difference. What happens is that bacteria have these collective behaviors, and they can carry out tasks that they could never accomplish if they simply acted as individuals.
Nós pensamos que esta é a próxima xeración de antibióticos e vainos permitir superar, polo menos inicialmente, este gran problema da resistencia. O que espero que entendan é que as bacterias falan entre elas, usan substancias químicas como palabras, teñen un léxico químico incriblemente complexo que agora estamos comezando a aprender. De feito, isto permítelles actuar como se fosen pluricelulares. Seguindo o espírito de TED elas fan cousas xuntas porque iso marca a diferenza. E así, as bacterias teñen esas condutas colectivas, e levan a cabo tarefas que nunca poderían facer se actuasen só como individuos.
What I would hope that I could further argue to you is that this is the invention of multicellularity. Bacteria have been on the earth for billions of years; humans, couple hundred thousand. So we think bacteria made the rules for how multicellular organization works. And we think by studying bacteria, we're going to be able to have insight about multicellularity in the human body. So we know that the principles and the rules, if we can figure them out in these sort of primitive organisms, the hope is that they will be applied to other human diseases and human behaviors as well. I hope that what you've learned is that bacteria can distinguish self from other. So by using these two molecules, they can say "me" and they can say "you." And again, of course, that's what we do, both in a molecular way, and also in an outward way, but I think about the molecular stuff.
O que me gustaría defender é que isto é a invención de pluricelularidade. As bacterias levan na Terra miles de millóns de anos; os seres humanos, uns douscentos mil. Cremos que as bacterias estableceron as regras sobre como funciona a organización pluricelular. Pensamos que, estudando as bacterias, coñeceremos máis sobre a pluricelularidade no corpo humano. Sabemos que, se entendemos os principios e as regras, nestes organismos primitivos, é posible que os poidamos aplicar a outras enfermidades e condutas humanas. Espero que aprenderan que as bacterias poden distinguirse unhas das outras. Usando esas dúas moléculas poden dicir "eu" ou "ti". Unha vez máis, iso é o que facemos, nunha forma molecular, e nunha forma externa, pero eu interésome pola parte molecular.
This is exactly what happens in your body. It's not like your heart cells and kidney cells get all mixed up every day, and that's because there's all of this chemistry going on, these molecules that say who each of these groups of cells is and what their tasks should be. So again, we think bacteria invented that, and you've just evolved a few more bells and whistles, but all of the ideas are in these simple systems that we can study.
Isto é o que pasa no seu corpo. As células do corazón e as dos riles nunca se mesturan, grazas a todos estes procesos químicos, a estas moléculas que din que células son de cada grupo, e que tarefas debe realizar cada un. Outra vez, cremos que iso o inventaron as bacterias, e vostedes evolucionaron un pouco máis, pero todas as ideas están nestes sistemas simples que podemos estudar.
And the final thing is, just to reiterate that there's this practical part, and so we've made these anti-quorum-sensing molecules that are being developed as new kinds of therapeutics. But then, to finish with a plug for all the good and miraculous bacteria that live on the earth, we've also made pro-quorum-sensing molecules. So we've targeted those systems to make the molecules work better. So remember, you have these 10 times or more bacterial cells in you or on you, keeping you healthy. What we're also trying to do is to beef up the conversation of the bacteria that live as mutualists with you, in the hopes of making you more healthy, making those conversations better, so bacteria can do things that we want them to do better than they would be on their own.
Por último, reiterar que isto ten unha vertente práctica, e que fixemos estas moléculas antipercepción do quórum que están sendo desenvolvidas como novos tipos de terapia. Para rematar un recoñecemento a todas as boas e incribles bacterias que viven na Terra, que fan moléculas propercepción do quórum. Modificamos os sistemas para facer que as moléculas funcionen mellor. Lembren que teñen 10 veces máis células bacterianas en ou sobre vostedes, manténdoos sans. Tamén estamos a tratar de fortalecer a conversación das bacterias que viven como mutualistas con vostedes, coa esperanza de facelos máis sans, mellorando esas conversacións, para que as bacterias poidan facer cousas que nos interesen mellor do que o farían por si mesmas.
Finally, I wanted to show you -- this is my gang at Princeton, New Jersey. Everything I told you about was discovered by someone in that picture. And I hope when you learn things, like about how the natural world works -- I just want to say that whenever you read something in the newspaper or you hear some talk about something ridiculous in the natural world, it was done by a child. So science is done by that demographic. All of those people are between 20 and 30 years old, and they are the engine that drives scientific discovery in this country. And it's a really lucky demographic to work with.
Para rematar, quero mostrarlles o meu grupo en Princeton, Nova Jersey. Todo o que lles contei descubriuno alguén desta foto. Espero que cando aprendan cousas, por exemplo, como funciona o mundo natural --cando lea algo no xornal ou oia algunha conversa sobre algo ridículo no mundo natural pode que o fixese un rapaz. A ciencia faina este grupo de idade. Todos teñen entre 20 e 30 anos, e son o motor que move os descubrimentos científicos neste país. É unha sorte traballar con eles.
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Eu son cada vez máis vella e eles sempre teñen a mesma idade,
I keep getting older and older, and they're always the same age. And it's just a crazy, delightful job. And I want to thank you for inviting me here, it's a big treat for me to get to come to this conference.
e é simplemente un traballo tolo e esgotador. Quero darlles as grazas por invitarme. É un gran pracer para min asistir a esta conferencia
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Thanks.
Grazas.
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