Almost a year ago, my aunt started suffering back pains. She went to see the doctor and they told her it was a normal injury for someone who had been playing tennis for almost 30 years. They recommended that she do some therapy, but after a while she wasn't feeling better, so the doctors decided to do further tests. They did an x-ray and discovered an injury in her lungs, and at the time they thought that the injury was a strain in the muscles and tendons between her ribs, but after a few weeks of treatment, again her health wasn't getting any better. So finally, they decided to do a biopsy, and two weeks later, the results of the biopsy came back. It was stage 3 lung cancer.
差不多一年以前 我的一个阿姨开始觉得背部疼痛 她去医院检查 医生们告诉她, 对于过去30年从事网球运动的人来说 这只是普通伤痛 医生们建议她进行一些治疗 但是过了一阵她并没有感觉有任何好转 所以医生们决定进一步的做一些检查 他们做了X光 然后找到了她肺部的一个伤口 当时医生们仍然觉得那个伤口 是她肋骨之间的 肌肉或者肌腱的拉伤 不过,经过好几周的治疗 伤痛仍然没有好转 最后,医生们决定做一次活体组织检验 于是,两周之后 活体组织检验的结果出来了 结果是肺癌,已经到了第三期
Her lifestyle was almost free of risk. She never smoked a cigarette, she never drank alcohol, and she had been playing sports for almost half her life. Perhaps, that is why it took them almost six months to get her properly diagnosed.
她的生活方式非常健康 她从来不抽烟 从来不喝酒 体育事业占据了她几乎半生 也许,这正是医生们花了六个月的时间 才对她做出了正确诊断的原因吧 不幸的是,我的故事可能
My story might be, unfortunately, familiar to most of you. One out of three people sitting in this audience will be diagnosed with some type of cancer, and one out of four will die because of it. Not only did that cancer diagnosis change the life of our family, but that process of going back and forth with new tests, different doctors describing symptoms, discarding diseases over and over, was stressful and frustrating, especially for my aunt. And that is the way cancer diagnosis has been done since the beginning of history. We have 21st-century medical treatments and drugs to treat cancer, but we still have 20th-century procedures and processes for diagnosis, if any.
让你们都觉得熟悉 在座的三分之一的听众们 都可能被诊断为某种癌症 并且四分之一的人 会因此而死亡 改变我们整个家庭生活的, 不仅是被诊断为癌症的结果, 还有那些反复做各种新检测的过程, 以及不停地向不同的医生描述症状 又反反复复的推翻之前诊断的过程, 这些都让人承受着巨大的压力 尤其让阿姨十分沮丧 但是,从有历史以来 癌症的诊断就是以这种方式进行的 我们用21世纪的医疗设备和药物 来治疗癌症 却还在用20世纪的流程和手续来诊断癌症 如果这能被称作流程的话
Today, most of us have to wait for symptoms to indicate that something is wrong. Today, the majority of people still don't have access to early cancer detection methods, even though we know that catching cancer early is basically the closest thing we have to a silver bullet cure against it. We know that we can change this in our lifetime, and that is why my team and I have decided to begin this journey, this journey to try to make cancer detection at the early stages and monitoring the appropriate response at the molecular level easier, cheaper, smarter and more accessible than ever before.
今天,大多数诊断都依赖于症状的表现 今天,我们中的绝大多数仍然没有 诊断早期癌症的方法 即便我们知道 癌症的早期发现 基本上是我们所能做的 最好的治愈癌症的良方 我们知道我们可以 在我们有生之年改变这种状况 这就是我和我的团队 决定开始这一段旅程的原因 这一段旅程的目的就是尝试 癌症的早期诊断 并且在分子的维度监控适当的反应 更简单、更便宜、更智慧 并且前所未有的更有可行性 当然,这事情的背景是
The context, of course, is that we're living at a time where technology is disrupting our present at exponential rates, and the biological realm is no exception. It is said today that biotech is advancing at least six times faster than the growth rate of the processing power of computers. But progress in biotech is not only being accelerated, it is also being democratized. Just as personal computers or the Internet or smartphones leveled the playing field for entrepreneurship, politics or education, recent advances have leveled it up for biotech progress as well, and that is allowing multidisciplinary teams like ours to try to tackle and look at these problems with new approaches.
我们生活的现在这个时代 科学技术正在 以惊人的速度发展着 生物领域也没有例外 据说现在生物技术的发展的速度 比计算机处理能力的增长 还要至少快六倍 但是生物技术领域的进步 并不仅仅是速度的增长 而且也更加的大众化 就像个人电脑或互联网 或智能手机拓宽了商业、政治和教育 的舞台一样 最近的科技发展同样更新了 生物技术的发展水平 这让我们这样的 来自不同领域的人组成的团队 可以使用一些新的途径 去尝试解决和攻克一些难题 我们的团队由来自智利、巴拿马
We are a team of scientists and technologists from Chile, Panama, Mexico, Israel and Greece, and based on recent scientific discoveries, we believe that we have found a reliable and accurate way of detecting several types of cancer at the very early stages through a blood sample. We do it by detecting a set of very small molecules that circulate freely in our blood called microRNAs.
墨西哥、以色列和希腊的 科学家和技术人员组成 在最近的科学发现的基础上 我们相信我们已经找到了 一种可靠和准确的方式 在很早的阶段,通过血液样本检测来 诊断几种癌症 我们通过检测一组在我们血液中自由流动的 细胞分子来做诊断 它们被称为微型RNA 为了解释微型RNA是什么
To explain what microRNAs are and their important role in cancer, I need to start with proteins, because when cancer is present in our body, protein modification is observed in all cancerous cells. As you might know, proteins are large biological molecules that perform different functions within our body, like catalyzing metabolic reactions or responding to stimuli or replicating DNA, but before a protein is expressed or produced, relevant parts of its genetic code present in the DNA are copied into the messenger RNA, so this messenger RNA has instructions on how to build a specific protein, and potentially it can build hundreds of proteins, but the one that tells them when to build them and how many to build are microRNAs. So microRNAs are small molecules that regulate gene expression. Unlike DNA, which is mainly fixed, microRNAs can vary depending on internal and environmental conditions at any given time, telling us which genes are actively expressed at that particular moment. And that is what makes microRNAs such a promising biomarker for cancer, because as you know, cancer is a disease of altered gene expression. It is the uncontrolled regulation of genes. Another important thing to consider is that no two cancers are the same, but at the microRNA level, there are patterns. Several scientific studies have shown that abnormal microRNA expression levels varies and creates a unique, specific pattern for each type of cancer, even at the early stages, reflecting the progression of the disease, and whether it's responding to medication or in remission, making microRNAs a perfect, highly sensitive biomarker.
以及它们在癌症当中扮演的重要角色 我需要从蛋白质开始 因为当我们的身体中出现癌症时 我们观察到了所有的癌细胞都在进行 “蛋白质的修饰” 你可能知道 蛋白质是一种大型的生物分子 蛋白质在我们的身体里面执行不同的功能 比如促进新陈代谢反应 或对外部刺激做出反应 或者复制DNA 但是,在蛋白质被生成或表达之前 它的DNA中的 基因编码的相应部分 也会被复制到信使RNA中 因此,这个信使RNA 掌握了如何生成一种特定蛋白质的指令 实际上,信使RNA可以生成好几百中不同的蛋白质 但是告诉它什么时候生成 以及生成多少的 是微型RNA 微型RNA是一种 规范基因表达的小分子 和基本固定的DNA不一样 微型RNA根据不同时间的内部和外部环境因素 可能各不相同 它告诉我们在一个特定时间,哪些基因是主动表达的 这就是微型RNA 这真是一个很好的癌症的生物标记 因为,你应该知道的 癌症是一种基因表达改变的疾病 它是基因规则不受控制的结果 另一件值得考虑的重要的事情是 没有任何两种癌症是一模一样的 不过,在微型RNA的角度,有一些规律可循 一些科学研究表明 不正常的微型RNA表达的等级 根据不同的癌症 有不同的、独特的模型 即便是在早期 可以反映疾病的发展状况 另外,在对判断治疗是否有效 或疾病是否有所缓解的判断上 微型RNA绝对是一个完美的 高度敏感的生物标记 不过,微型RNA的问题在于
However, the problem with microRNAs is that we cannot use existing DNA-based technology to detect them in a reliable way, because they are very short sequences of nucleotides, much smaller than DNA. And also, all microRNAs are very similar to each other, with just tiny differences. So imagine trying to differentiate two molecules, extremely similar, extremely small.
现有的基于DNA的科技 无法做到可靠的识别它们 因为它们是一串非常短序列的核苷酸 比DNA小得多 也正因为如此,所有的微型RNA都看起来差不多 可能仅仅有很细微的差别 所以,想象一下,尝试分辨 两个极其相似,又极其微小的分子 我们相信我们找到一个方法
We believe that we have found a way to do so, and this is the first time that we've shown it in public. Let me do a demonstration. Imagine that next time you go to your doctor and do your next standard blood test, a lab technician extracts a total RNA, which is quite simple today, and puts it in a standard 96-well plate like this one. Each well of these plates has specific biochemistry that we assign, that is looking for a specific microRNA, acting like a trap that closes only when the microRNA is present in the sample, and when it does, it will shine with green color. To run the reaction, you put the plate inside a device like this one, and then you can put your smartphone on top of it. If we can have a camera here so you can see my screen. A smartphone is a connected computer and it's also a camera, good enough for our purpose. The smartphone is taking pictures, and when the reaction is over, it will send the pictures to our online database for processing and interpretation. This entire process lasts around 60 minutes, but when the process is over, wells that shine are matched with the specific microRNAs and analyzed in terms of how much and how fast they shine. And then, when this entire process is over, this is what happens. This chart is showing the specific microRNAs present in this sample and how they reacted over time. Then, if we take this specific pattern of microRNA of this person's samples and compare it with existing scientific documentation that correlates microRNA patterns with a specific presence of a disease, this is how pancreatic cancer looks like. This inside is a real sample where we just detected pancreatic cancer.
这是我们第一次公开的展示 请让我们做一个示范 想象一下,下一次你去找医生的时候 做常规的血液测试 实验室技术人员分离出一个完整的RNA 这其实在现在非常简单 然后把它放到到一个标准的96孔板--就像这个一样 我们给这个板的每一个孔都分配 一个特定的生化指标 用来寻找一个特定的微型RNA 就好像一个陷阱 仅在特定的微型RNA在样本里出现时才会启动 并且陷阱启动的时候,它会变成绿色 为了做这个测试 你将这个板放进一个设备--好像这一个 之后你可以把你的智能手机放在它上面 如果在这里我们可以有一个摄像头 你就可以看到我的视野了 智能手机是一个联网的计算机 同时它也是一个相机 这已经足够帮助我们了 智能手机在这里不停的照相 当这里的反应结束 它会把这些照片 发送到我们的网上处理中心 进行处理和翻译 整个过程大概需要60分钟 不过当这个过程结束之时 变绿的孔是和特定的微型RNA相匹配的 并且已经分析了它们变绿的 数量和速度 之后,整个过程结束之后 这是将要发生的 这一张图表展示了 这一个样本里存在的特定微型RNA 以及它们如何随时间进行反应 然后,如果我们采集这个人的样本中 微型RNA的特定模型 然后和现有的与微型RNA模型有关的 科学资料进行对比 如果有一种特定的疾病 这就是胰腺癌看起来的样子 这里面的是一个真正的样本 在里面我们诊断了胰腺癌
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Another important aspect of this approach is the gathering and mining of data in the cloud, so we can get results in real time and analyze them with our contextual information. If we want to better understand and decode diseases like cancer, we need to stop treating them as acute, isolated episodes, and consider and measure everything that affects our health on a permanent basis. This entire platform is a working prototype. It uses state-of-the-art molecular biology, a low-cost, 3D-printed device, and data science to try to tackle one of humanity's toughest challenges. Since we believe early cancer detection should really be democratized, this entire solution costs at least 50 times less than current available methods, and we know that the community can help us accelerate this even more, so we're making the design of the device open-source.
关于这个方法的另外一个重要的方面是 收集和挖掘云端的数据 我们才能实时的得到结果 才能够结合我们掌握的信息进行分析 如果我们希望更好的 理解和解决癌症这样的疾病 我们就不能把它们当成 急性的、独立的片段 我们要考虑和测试一切 可能永久的影响我们的健康的因素 这整个平台是一个工作原型 它使用当前最新的分子生物技术 一种低成本的3D打印设备 以及数据科学 来尝试攻克一个人类历史上最难的挑战 我们相信早期的癌症诊断 绝对应该被普及到大众 这一套完整的解决方案与 现有可行的方法相比 至少在成本上要便宜50倍 我们还相信社区能帮助我们 进一步的加速这个方案的实施 因此我们把这个设备的设计 进行了开源
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Let me say very clearly that we are at the very early stages, but so far, we have been able to successfully identify the microRNA pattern of pancreatic cancer, lung cancer, breast cancer and hepatic cancer. And currently, we're doing a clinical trial in collaboration with the German Cancer Research Center with 200 women for breast cancer.
让我非常明确的说一句 我们是在很初步的阶段 但是到目前为止 我们已经成功的识别出了 胰腺癌、肺癌、乳腺癌 和肝癌的微型RNA模型 现在,我们与德国癌症研究中心合作 正在对200名女性 进行乳腺癌诊断的临床试验
(Applause) This is the single non-invasive, accurate and affordable test that has the potential to dramatically change how cancer procedures and diagnostics have been done. Since we're looking for the microRNA patterns in your blood at any given time, you don't need to know which cancer you're looking for. You don't need to have any symptoms. You only need one milliliter of blood and a relatively simple array of tools.
(掌声) 这是一种无侵入性 准确的,并且并不昂贵的测试 而这个测试具有巨大的潜力 它可能会极大的改变 癌症诊断和治疗的方法 鉴于我们可以在任何特定时间 在你的血液样本中寻找微型RNA模式 你不需要要求检查哪一种癌症 你也不必要一定有症状 你只需要1毫升的血液 以及一组相对简单的工具
Today, cancer detection happens mainly when symptoms appear. That is, at stage 3 or 4, and I believe that is too late. It is too expensive for our families. It is too expensive for humanity. We cannot lose the war against cancer. It not only costs us billions of dollars, but it also costs us the people we love. Today, my aunt, she's fighting bravely and going through this process with a very positive attitude. However, I want fights like this to become very rare. I want to see the day when cancer is treated easily because it can be routinely diagnosed at the very early stages, and I'm certain that in the very near future, because of this and other breakthroughs that we are seeing every day in the life sciences, the way we see cancer will radically change. It will give us the chance of detecting it early, understanding it better, and finding a cure.
如今,癌症的诊断 只会在症状显现的时候进行 那基本就是第三阶段或者第四阶段了 这已经太晚了 对我们的家庭来说,这代价太高 对人类来说,这代价太高 我们不能输掉对抗癌症的战争 这场战争不仅仅消耗我们数亿美金 它还会让我们付出失去我们所爱的人的代价 现在,我的阿姨正在勇敢的、以积极的心态 和癌症做斗争 只不过,我希望这样的斗争 变得极为少见 我希望看到那一天 癌症由于可以被常规的诊断出来 而使得其可以在早期 被轻松的治愈 我相信 这一天就快到来了 因为它 以及其他的我们所看到的科技突破 生命科学的每一天 我们看待癌症的方式 将会发生明显的变化 科技的发展让我们可以及早的诊断癌症 更好的了解癌症 更好的找到治疗的方法
Thank you very much.
非常感谢
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