The greatest irony in global health is that the poorest countries carry the largest disease burden. If we resize the countries of the globe in proportion to the subject of interest, we see that Sub-Saharan Africa is the worst hit region by HIV/AIDS. This is the most devastating epidemic of our time. We also see that this region has the least capability in terms of dealing with the disease. There are very few doctors and, quite frankly, these countries do not have the resources that are needed to cope with such epidemics.
Najveća ironija globalnog zdravlja je u tome da su najsiromašnije zemlje najveći kontejneri bolesti. Ukoliko bismo veličine zemalja na planeti promenili proporcionalno problemu o kom pričamo, videli bismo da je podsahraska Afrika najteže pogođena HIV/SIDA epidemijom To je najstrašnija epidemija našeg vremena. Takođe možemo uočiti da je to region koji ima najmanji kapacitet da se nosi sa tom bolešću. Nedovoljno je lekara tamo, i iskreno govoreći ove zemlje nemaju neophodna sredstva da se nose sa takvom epidemijom.
So what the Western countries, developed countries, have generously done is they have proposed to provide free drugs to all people in Third World countries who actually can't afford these medications. And this has already saved millions of lives, and it has prevented entire economies from capsizing in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Tako da su zemlje zapada, razvijene zemlje velikodušno predložile da obezbede besplatne lekove ljudima u zemljama trećeg sveta koji u principu ne mogu da priušte ove lekove. Ovo je već spasilo milione života i potpuno je sprečilo kolaps ekonomije u podsaharskoj Africi.
But there is a fundamental problem that is killing the efforts in fighting this disease, because if you keep throwing drugs out at people who don't have diagnostic services, you end up creating a problem of drug resistance. This is already beginning to happen in Sub-Saharan Africa. The problem is that, what begins as a tragedy in the Third World could easily become a global problem. And the last thing we want to see is drug-resistant strains of HIV popping up all over the world, because it will make treatment more expensive and it could also restore the pre-ARV carnage of HIV/AIDS.
Ovde se nosimo sa osnovnim problemom koji prosto uništava trud u borbi protiv ove bolesti, jer ukoliko samo dajete lekove ljudima kojima nije uspostavljena dijagnoza, prosto razvijate sindrom razvoja rezistentnosti na lekove. Ovo se već dešava u podsaharskoj Africi. Problem je u tome što ono što počinje kao tragedija u zemljama trećeg sveta, može lako postati globalni problem. Poslednja stvar koju želimo jeste rasprostiranje rezistentnih sojeva virusa HIV-a po čitavom svetu, jer to će dovesti do povećanja cena terapije, i može vratiti na scenu stopu HIV-SIDA smrtnosti na nivo pre-ARV perioda.
I experienced this firsthand as a high school student in Uganda. This was in the 90s during the peak of the HIV epidemic, before there were any ARVs in Sub-Saharan Africa. And during that time, I actually lost more relatives, as well as the teachers who taught me, to HIV/AIDS. So this became one of the driving passions of my life, to help find real solutions that could address these kinds of problems.
Ovo sam i lično doživeo u toku srednje škole u Ugandi. To se dešavalo u periodu '90. u toku samog vrhunca HIV epidemije, pre nego što su uvedeni ARV lekovi u podsaharskoj Africi. U tom periodu je epidemija HIV/SID-e usmrtila mnogo mojih rođaka, a takođe i nastavnika koji su me podučavali. To me je motivisalo da se posvetim pronalaženju pravih rešenja koja bi se na adekvatan način nosila sa ovim tipom problema.
We all know about the miracle of miniaturization. Back in the day, computers used to fill this entire room, and people actually used to work inside the computers. But what electronic miniaturization has done is that it has allowed people to shrink technology into a cell phone. And I'm sure everyone here enjoys cell phones that can actually be used in the remote areas of the world, in the Third World countries. The good news is that the same technology that allowed miniaturization of electronics is now allowing us to miniaturize biological laboratories.
Svi smo svesni čuda minimalizma. Ranije su računari bili veličine čitave ovakve sobe, i ljudi su u principu radilu unutar samih računara. Minimalizam u elektronici je omogućio ljudima da smanje tehnologiju do veličine mobilnog telefona. Siguran sam da svi prisutni ovde nalaze mobilne telefone koje mogu da koriste u udaljenim krajevima sveta, u zemljama trećeg sveta, veoma korisnim. Dobra vest je što ista ta tehnologija koja je omogućila minimalizam u elektronici, danas omogućava da uvedemo minimalizam i u slučaju bioloških laboratorija.
So, right now, we can actually miniaturize biological and chemistry laboratories onto microfluidic chips. I was very lucky to come to the US right after high school, and was able to work on this technology and develop some devices. This is a microfluidic chip that I developed. A close look at how the technology works: These are channels that are about the size of a human hair -- so you have integrated valves, pumps, mixers and injectors -- so you can fit entire diagnostic experiments onto a microfluidic system.
U ovom trenutku možemo svesti biološku i hemijsku laboratoriju na mikrofluidni čip. Imao sam sreće da dođem u SAD odmah nakon srednje škole, i bio sam u prilici da radim na ovoj tehnologiji i razvijem neke uređaje. Ovo je mikrofluidni čip koji sam razvio. Detaljan pogled na sistem rada ove tehnologije Imamo kanale koji su veličine ljudske dlake, i tu su integrisani kontrolori protoka, pumpe, mikseri i špricevi, tako da možete da smestite čitav dijagnostički eksperiment na sistem mikrofluida.
So what I plan to do with this technology is to actually take the current state of the technology and build an HIV kit in a microfluidic system. So, with one microfluidic chip, which is the size of an iPhone, you can actually diagnose 100 patients at the same time. For each patient, we will be able to do up to 100 different viral loads per patient. And this is only done in four hours, 50 times faster than the current state of the art, at a cost that will be five to 500 times cheaper than the current options. So this will allow us to create personalized medicines in the Third World at a cost that is actually achievable and make the world a safer place.
Moj plan je da iskoristim ovu tehnologiju kakva postoji danas i na toj platformi izgradim čitav HIV dijagnostički set, na tom sistemu mikrofluida. Uz pomoć samo jednog mikrofluidnog čipa koji je veličine ajFona, možete uraditi dijagnozu 100 pacijenata istovremeno. Moći ćemo da procenimo, za svakog pacijenta, do 100 različitih titara virusa po pacijentu. Procedura traje samo četiri sata, 50 puta je brža od današnjeg najboljeg uređaja, a cena će biti 500 puta jeftinija u odnosu na trenutno stanje. Ovo će nam dozvoliti da plasiramo personalizovanu medicinu u zemljama trećeg sveta po ceni koja je u principu dosežna i tako ćemo svet učiniti bezbednijim.
I invite your interest as well as your involvement in driving this vision to a point of practical reality.
Pozivam vas da se zainteresujete a i da sami doprinesete tome da ova vizija ugleda svetlost dana.
Thank you very much.
Mnogo vam hvala.
(Applause)
(aplauz)