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.
全球健康問題中,最諷刺的就是, 最貧窮的國家 疾病肆虐最為嚴重。 如果我們將世界各國疾病肆虐 的嚴重程度進行排序的話, 我們會發現撒哈拉沙漠以南的非洲, 是愛滋病肆虐最嚴重的地區。 而愛滋病是我們這時代最致命的傳染性疾病, 我們還會發現,這一地區 在對抗愛滋病方面恰恰是最無能爲力的。 那裡缺乏醫生, 而且老實說,這些國家根本不具備 對抗愛滋病 所需要的資源。
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.
西方 已開發國家,慷慨地 提供免費藥品, 給買不起這些藥的 第三世界國家人民, 這種義舉挽救了數百萬的生靈, 也避免撒哈拉南部非洲 各國的經濟瓦解。
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.
但這種方式有一個根本的問題, 會讓整個對抗愛滋病 的努力化為烏有。 因為假如不停盲目地提供藥品 給那些 沒有經過診斷的人們, 就會導致病毒抗藥性增強的問題。 這個現象已開始在撒哈拉南部非洲地區顯現。 問題在於, 這始於第三世界國家的悲劇, 很容易就會演變爲全球性的問題, 而我們最不願意見到的事情, 就是産生了抗藥性的愛滋病毒, 在全球各地如雨後春筍般的肆虐, 這樣一來治療費用就愈發昂貴, 並且它還會使過去愛滋病 抗逆轉錄病毒泛濫的時代再度降臨。
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.
我曾親身經歷那個時代, 那時我是烏干達的中學生, 時間在90年代, 愛滋病流行的最高峰時期, 當時撒南非洲還沒有任何抗逆轉錄病毒藥物。 在那段期間,我大多數的親人 以及給我上課的老師, 都死於愛滋病。 這經歷轉化為我人生的驅動力, 我的目標就是尋找 一個有效的辦法,來解決這類問題。
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.
我們都見識過微型化技術的神奇, 從前的電腦大到能填滿這一整個屋子, 使用它的人們還得在其間穿梭, 但是隨著電子技術微型化的發展, 人們已經可以把科技縮小, 小到可以放進手機裡。 我想在座的各位都享受過手機的便利性吧, 手機在偏遠地區的第三世界 國家裡,也能派上用場。 好消息是,同一個 電子微型化技術, 也可以用來微縮 生物實驗室。
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.
所以,如今,我們可以把 生化實驗室微縮成 微流體晶片。 我很幸運, 高中畢業之後就直接來到美國, 後來參與了這項技術的研究, 也研發了一些設備。 這是我研發的一種微流體晶片, 細看一下這種技術的工作原理: 這些管道孔徑跟人的頭髮差不多粗細, 將閥門、泵、注射器和混合器整合進去之後, 這樣你就可以把整套診斷化驗用的設備, 都裝到一個微流體晶片上去。
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.
我計劃應用前述科技, 也就是將這技術 現在已經發展的成果, 在一個微流體晶片上, 建立起愛滋病的化驗實驗室。 用這樣一個 跟iPhone差不多大小的晶片, 就可以同時診斷 上百位病人; 而對每位病人, 我們可以做出多達百組的病毒負荷量檢測。 而作這一切檢測僅費時四小時, 比現有的方法要快上五十倍, 價格卻只有現有的方法的 五到五百分之一。 這讓我們能夠 在第三世界國家提供個人化治療, 而費用也是他們負擔得起的, 這將會使世界變得更加安全。
I invite your interest as well as your involvement in driving this vision to a point of practical reality.
我希望大家能關注這項技術, 更希望你們能實際參與, 一同推動這個願望, 使它能夠早日實現。
Thank you very much.
非常感謝。
(Applause)
(掌聲)