You don't know them. You don't see them. But they're always around, whispering, making secret plans, building armies with millions of soldiers. And when they decide to attack, they all attack at the same time. I'm talking about bacteria.
你不認識它們。 你看不見它們。 但它們總是在你身邊, 竊竊私語, 暗中策劃, 建造數百萬士兵的軍隊。 當它們決定進攻時, 它們會全體同時一起進攻。 我在說的是細菌。
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
Who did you think I was talking about?
你們以為我在說誰?
Bacteria live in communities just like humans. They have families, they talk, and they plan their activities. And just like humans, they trick, deceive, and some might even cheat on each other. What if I tell you that we can listen to bacterial conversations and translate their confidential information into human language? And what if I tell you that translating bacterial conversations can save lives? I hold a PhD in nanophysics, and I've used nanotechnology to develop a real-time translation tool that can spy on bacterial communities and give us recordings of what bacteria are up to.
細菌和人類一樣,過著群體生活。 它們也有家庭, 它們也會交談,它們還會 規劃自己的活動。 它們也和人類一樣, 會耍詭計、會行騙, 有些細菌甚至會欺騙彼此。 如果我告訴各位, 我們可以傾聽細菌的談話, 將它們的機密資訊 翻譯成人類語言,會如何? 如果我告訴各位,翻譯細菌的談話 可以拯救人命,又會怎樣呢? 我有奈米科學的博士學位, 我用奈米技術來開發即時翻譯工具, 它能夠用來監視細菌團體, 幫我們把細菌的計畫給錄下來。
Bacteria live everywhere. They're in the soil, on our furniture and inside our bodies. In fact, 90 percent of all the live cells in this theater are bacterial. Some bacteria are good for us; they help us digest food or produce antibiotics. And some bacteria are bad for us; they cause diseases and death. To coordinate all the functions bacteria have, they have to be able to organize, and they do that just like us humans -- by communicating. But instead of using words, they use signaling molecules to communicate with each other. When bacteria are few, the signaling molecules just flow away, like the screams of a man alone in the desert. But when there are many bacteria, the signaling molecules accumulate, and the bacteria start sensing that they're not alone. They listen to each other. In this way, they keep track of how many they are and when they're many enough to initiate a new action. And when the signaling molecules have reached a certain threshold, all the bacteria sense at once that they need to act with the same action.
細菌無所不在。 它們存在於土壤中、我們的家具上, 及我們的身體中。 事實上,在這個劇院中 有九成的活細胞是細菌。 有些細菌對我們有益; 它們能協助我們消化食物 或是產生抗生素。 有些細菌對我們有害; 它們會造成疾病和死亡。 細菌為了要協調 它們具有的各種功能, 它們必須要能夠組織和整合, 而它們的做法和人類一樣—— 透過溝通來做。 但,它們用的不是言語, 它們用信號分子來和彼此溝通。 當細菌數量很少時, 信號分子就會跑掉, 就像在沙漠中只有一個人在大叫。 但,當細菌數量很多時, 信號分子就會累積起來, 細菌會開始感覺到它們並不孤單。 它們會傾聽彼此。 它們以這種方式追蹤數量有多少, 也能知道何時有足夠的數量 可以開始進行新的動作。 當信號分子到達了某個門檻時, 所有的細菌都會立刻 感受到它們必須要行動, 且採取相同的動作。
So bacterial conversation consists of an initiative and a reaction, a production of a molecule and the response to it. In my research, I focused on spying on bacterial communities inside the human body. How does it work? We have a sample from a patient. It could be a blood or spit sample. We shoot electrons into the sample, the electrons will interact with any communication molecules present, and this interaction will give us information on the identity of the bacteria, the type of communication and how much the bacteria are talking.
所以,細菌談話由倡議 和反應兩部分組成, 即產生分子和對分子的回應。 我的研究把焦點放在監視 人類體內的細菌團體。 這是怎麼運作的? 我們先從病人身上取得樣本。 可以用血液樣本或唾液樣本。 我們將電子射入這個樣本中, 如果樣本中有任何溝通分子, 電子會和它產生交互作用, 這種交互作用能提供資訊給我們, 資訊內容包括細菌的身分、 溝通類型, 以及細菌的交流數據。
But what is it like when bacteria communicate? Before I developed the translation tool, my first assumption was that bacteria would have a primitive language, like infants that haven't developed words and sentences yet. When they laugh, they're happy; when they cry, they're sad. Simple as that. But bacteria turned out to be nowhere as primitive as I thought they would be. A molecule is not just a molecule. It can mean different things depending on the context, just like the crying of babies can mean different things: sometimes the baby is hungry, sometimes it's wet, sometimes it's hurt or afraid. Parents know how to decode those cries. And to be a real translation tool, it had to be able to decode the signaling molecules and translate them depending on the context. And who knows? Maybe Google Translate will adopt this soon.
但,細菌的溝通是什麼樣子? 在我開發出翻譯工具之前, 我首先假設細菌有自己的原始語言, 就像尚未發展出字詞和句子的嬰兒。 當他們笑,就表示很快樂; 當他們哭,則表示悲傷。 就這麼簡單。 但,結果發現,細菌完全 不是我原先以為的那麼原始。 分子不只是分子。 在不同的情境下, 它可能有不同的意思。 就像嬰兒的哭泣可能有不同的意思: 有時是嬰兒餓了, 有時是嬰兒尿濕了, 有時是嬰兒受傷了或感到害怕。 父母知道如何解讀這些哭泣。 真正的翻譯工具 要能夠解讀信號分子, 並根據情境來翻譯它們。 誰知道呢? 說不定 Google 翻譯 很快就會把它納入。
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
Let me give you an example. I've brought some bacterial data that can be a bit tricky to understand if you're not trained, but try to take a look.
讓我舉個例子。 我帶來了一些細菌資料, 如果你沒受過訓練, 可能會覺得有點難了解, 但就試試看吧。
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
Here's a happy bacterial family that has infected a patient. Let's call them the Montague family. They share resources, they reproduce, and they grow. One day, they get a new neighbor, bacterial family Capulet.
這是一個快樂的細菌家族, 它們感染了一名病人。 咱們就把它們稱為蒙特鳩家族。 它們會分享資源、繁殖,以及成長。 有一天,他們的新鄰居出現了, 卡帕萊特細菌家族。 (笑聲)(出自羅密歐與茱麗葉)
(Laughter)
Everything is fine, as long as they're working together. But then something unplanned happens. Romeo from Montague has a relationship with Juliet from Capulet.
當兩個家族能夠合作時, 一切都很好。 但,接著,未預期的事情發生了。 蒙特鳩家族的羅密歐 和卡帕萊特家族的茱麗葉相戀了。
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
And yes, they share genetic material.
是的,它們會共享基因物質。
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
Now, this gene transfer can be dangerous to the Montagues that have the ambition to be the only family in the patient they have infected, and sharing genes contributes to the Capulets developing resistance to antibiotics. So the Montagues start talking internally to get rid of this other family by releasing this molecule.
對於蒙特鳩家族而言, 這種基因傳送十分危險, 因為該家族的野心是要成為它們 所感染的病人體內唯一的家族, 而共享基因會導致卡帕萊特家族 發展出對抗生素的抵抗力。 所以,蒙特鳩家族開始内部討論 打算要除掉另一個家族, 交談方式就是通過釋放這種分子。
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
And with subtitles:
還有字幕:
[Let us coordinate an attack.]
【咱們安排一次進攻吧。】
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
Let's coordinate an attack. And then everybody at once responds by releasing a poison that will kill the other family.
咱們安排一次進攻吧。 接著,大家立刻回應, 回應方式是一起釋出 能殺死另一個家族的毒物。
[Eliminate!]
【消滅!】
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
The Capulets respond by calling for a counterattack.
卡帕萊特家族的回應, 就是號召反擊。
[Counterattack!]
【反擊!】
And they have a battle.
它們開始交戰。
This is a video of real bacteria dueling with swordlike organelles, where they try to kill each other by literally stabbing and rupturing each other. Whoever's family wins this battle becomes the dominant bacteria.
這支影片是真實細菌用 像劍一樣的細胞器在進行對決, 它們試圖殺掉彼此, 真的去刺擊、撕裂彼此。 獲勝的那個家族 就會成為統治的細菌。
So what I can do is to detect bacterial conversations that lead to different collective behaviors like the fight you just saw. And what I did was to spy on bacterial communities inside the human body in patients at a hospital. I followed 62 patients in an experiment, where I tested the patient samples for one particular infection, without knowing the results of the traditional diagnostic test.
所以,我能做的就是 去偵測細菌的談話, 了解造成不同集體行為的談話模式, 比如剛才例子中的對戰行為。 我所做的,就是監視 人類體內的細菌團體, 對象是醫院中的病人。 我做了一項實驗, 追蹤了六十二位病人, 檢測病人的樣本,在不清楚傳統 檢測結果是什麼的情況下, 尋找某一種特定的感染病原。
Now, in bacterial diagnostics, a sample is smeared out on a plate, and if the bacteria grow within five days, the patient is diagnosed as infected. When I finished the study and I compared the tool results to the traditional diagnostic test and the validation test, I was shocked. It was far more astonishing than I had ever anticipated.
在細菌診斷中, 樣本會被抹在一個盤子上, 如果在五天之內細菌會成長, 就可以診斷病人受到感染。 我完成研究之後,把我的工具 得到的結果拿來對照 傳統診斷檢測及驗證檢測的結果, 我嚇了一跳。 結果比我所預期的還要驚人許多。
But before I tell you what the tool revealed, I would like to tell you about a specific patient I followed, a young girl. She had cystic fibrosis, a genetic disease that made her lungs susceptible to bacterial infections. This girl wasn't a part of the clinical trial. I followed her because I knew from her medical record that she had never had an infection before. Once a month, this girl went to the hospital to cough up a sputum sample that she spit in a cup. This sample was transferred for bacterial analysis at the central laboratory so the doctors could act quickly if they discovered an infection. And it allowed me to test my device on her samples as well.
但,在我告訴各位 這項工具的發現之前, 我想要先跟各位談談 我追蹤的其中一位病人, 一位年輕的女孩。 她得了囊狀纖維化, 這是一種遺傳疾病,會讓她的肺 很容易被細菌感染所影響。 這女孩並不是臨床實驗的一部分。 我追蹤她是因為我從她的病例發現 她以前從來沒有受過感染。 每個月,這個女孩要去一次醫院, 對杯子咳痰,作為樣本。 這個樣本會被送去做細菌分析, 由中央實驗室分析, 一旦發現感染, 醫生就可以儘快採取行動。 因此,我也可以用我的裝置 來檢測她的樣本。
The first two months I measured on her samples, there was nothing. But the third month, I discovered some bacterial chatter in her sample. The bacteria were coordinating to damage her lung tissue. But the traditional diagnostics showed no bacteria at all. I measured again the next month, and I could see that the bacterial conversations became even more aggressive. Still, the traditional diagnostics showed nothing. My study ended, but a half a year later, I followed up on her status to see if the bacteria only I knew about had disappeared without medical intervention. They hadn't. But the girl was now diagnosed with a severe infection of deadly bacteria. It was the very same bacteria my tool discovered earlier. And despite aggressive antibiotic treatment, it was impossible to eradicate the infection. Doctors deemed that she would not survive her 20s.
前兩個月,我在測量她的樣本時, 什麼都沒有發現。 但,在第三個月, 我發現她的樣本中 有些細菌開始竊竊私語了。 這些細菌在協調, 打算要傷害她的肺部組織。 但傳統的診斷結果卻顯示沒有細菌。 下個月,我再做一次測量, 我發現細菌的談話變得更劇烈了。 傳統診斷的結果仍沒有顯示。 我的研究就這樣結束了, 但半年後,我再追蹤她的狀況, 想了解一下,那些只有我發現的細菌 是否在沒有醫療 介入的情況下消失了。 結果沒有消失。 但那位女孩被診斷出 受到致命細菌的嚴重感染。 那種細菌,正是我的工具 先前發現的細菌。 儘管採用積極的抗生素治療, 仍然不可能根絕感染。 醫生認定她無法活到三十歲。
When I measured on this girl's samples, my tool was still in the initial stage. I didn't even know if my method worked at all, therefore I had an agreement with the doctors not to tell them what my tool revealed in order not to compromise their treatment. So when I saw these results that weren't even validated, I didn't dare to tell because treating a patient without an actual infection also has negative consequences for the patient. But now we know better, and there are many young boys and girls that still can be saved because, unfortunately, this scenario happens very often. Patients get infected, the bacteria somehow don't show on the traditional diagnostic test, and suddenly, the infection breaks out in the patient with severe symptoms. And at that point, it's already too late.
當我在測量這個女孩的樣本時, 我的工具還在研發的初期。 我當時甚至不知道 我的方法是否可行, 因此,我和醫生們約定 我不會告訴他們 我的工具發現了什麼, 這樣才不會影響到他們的治療。 所以,當我看到這些 還沒有被驗證的結果時, 我完全不敢說出來, 因為治療沒有真正受到感染的病人 也會對病人造成不良的後果。 但,現在我們懂得更多了, 還有很多年輕的男孩、 女孩可以得救, 因為,很不幸的, 這種情況經常發生: 病人被感染, 不知怎麼的,傳統診斷 檢測不會發現細菌, 突然間,感染在病人體內爆發, 引起嚴重的症狀。 到那個時候,一切就太遲了。
The surprising result of the 62 patients I followed was that my device caught bacterial conversations in more than half of the patient samples that were diagnosed as negative by traditional methods. In other words, more than half of these patients went home thinking they were free from infection, although they actually carried dangerous bacteria. Inside these wrongly diagnosed patients, bacteria were coordinating a synchronized attack. They were whispering to each other. What I call "whispering bacteria" are bacteria that traditional methods cannot diagnose. So far, it's only the translation tool that can catch those whispers. I believe that the time frame in which bacteria are still whispering is a window of opportunity for targeted treatment. If the girl had been treated during this window of opportunity, it might have been possible to kill the bacteria in their initial stage, before the infection got out of hand.
回到我追蹤的六十二位病人, 剛才提到的驚人結果 就是我的裝置 在至少一半用傳統方法 診斷為陰性的病人樣本中, 捕捉到細菌談話。 換言之,這些病人當中, 有超過一半回到家裡, 以為自己沒有受到感染, 其實他們身上卻帶有危險的細菌。 在這些被誤診的病人體內, 細菌正在協調要進行同步進攻。 它們彼此竊竊私語。 我所謂的「竊竊私語細菌」 就是傳統方法無法 診斷出來的細菌。 目前,只有這一種翻譯工具 能夠捕捉到這些竊竊私語。 我相信,當細菌仍然 在竊竊私語的期間, 就是個機會之窗, 可以進行標靶治療。 如果當時那個女孩能在 機會之窗期間接受治療, 還在初始階段的細菌 是有可能被治療殺死的, 感染的狀況就不會失控。
What I experienced with this young girl made me decide to do everything I can to push this technology into the hospital. Together with doctors, I'm already working on implementing this tool in clinics to diagnose early infections.
關於這個女孩的這段經驗, 讓我決心要盡一切努力, 將這項技術推廣到醫院。 我已經在和醫生合作, 將這項工具導入到診所中, 來診斷早期的感染。
Although it's still not known how doctors should treat patients during the whispering phase, this tool can help doctors keep a closer eye on patients in risk. It could help them confirm if a treatment had worked or not, and it could help answer simple questions: Is the patient infected? And what are the bacteria up to?
雖然,我們還不清楚 在這個竊竊私語階段 醫生該如何治療病人, 但這項工具能協助醫生 更留心有風險的病人。 它能協助醫生確認 治療的結果是否有效, 它也能協助回答簡單的問題: 病人是否受到感染? 細菌有什麼打算?
Bacteria talk, they make secret plans, and they send confidential information to each other. But not only can we catch them whispering, we can all learn their secret language and become ourselves bacterial whisperers. And, as bacteria would say, "3-oxo-C12-aniline."
細菌會交談, 它們會在背後秘謀, 它們會向彼此發送機密資訊。 但,我們不僅能捕捉到 它們的竊竊私語, 大家都能學會它們的秘密語言, 讓我們自己也會說細菌的暗號。 就如同細菌所說的: 「3-oxo-C12-苯胺。」
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
(Applause)
(掌聲)
Thank you.
謝謝。