Organic chemists make molecules, very complicated molecules, by chopping up a big molecule into small molecules and reverse engineering. And as a chemist, one of the things I wanted to ask my research group a couple of years ago is, could we make a really cool universal chemistry set? In essence, could we "app" chemistry?
Kemiki organske kemije izdelujejo molekule, zelo zapletene molekule, tako, da razkosajo veliko molekulo v majhne molekule in obratno. In kot kemik, je bila ena od stvari, ki sem jih hotel vprašati svojo raziskovalno ekipo nekaj let nazaj, ali bi lahko naredili res kul univerzalen set za kemijo? V bistvu, bi lahko naredili aplikacijo za kemijo?
Now what would this mean, and how would we do it? Well to start to do this, we took a 3D printer and we started to print our beakers and our test tubes on one side and then print the molecule at the same time on the other side and combine them together in what we call reactionware. And so by printing the vessel and doing the chemistry at the same time, we may start to access this universal toolkit of chemistry.
Kaj bi to pomenilo in kako bi to naredili? No, da bi začeli s tem, smo vzeli 3D tiskalnik in začeli smo si tiskati čaše in epruvete na eni strani in potem hkrati tiskati molekule na drugi strani in jih združili s procesom imenovanim "reactionware". In tako bi s tiskanjem posod in kemije hkrati morda lahko začeli z doseganjem tega univerzalnega seta za kemijo.
Now what could this mean? Well if we can embed biological and chemical networks like a search engine, so if you have a cell that's ill that you need to cure or bacteria that you want to kill, if you have this embedded in your device at the same time, and you do the chemistry, you may be able to make drugs in a new way.
In kaj bi to pomenilo? No, če lahko vgradimo biološka in kemična omrežja kot iskalnik, tako, da če imate celico, ki je bolna in jo morate pozdraviti, ali bakterijo, ki jo hočete ubiti, če imate to obenem vgrajeno v svojo napravo in sprožite kemični proces, boste morda lahko izdelovali zdravila na nov način.
So how are we doing this in the lab? Well it requires software, it requires hardware and it requires chemical inks. And so the really cool bit is, the idea is that we want to have a universal set of inks that we put out with the printer, and you download the blueprint, the organic chemistry for that molecule and you make it in the device. And so you can make your molecule in the printer using this software.
Kako torej to počnemo v laboratoriju? Potrebna je programska oprema, potrebna je strojna oprema in potrebna so kemična črnila. In zares kul del je ideja, da hočemo imeti univerzalni set črnil, ki jih prodamo skupaj s tiskalnikom in vi si prenesete načrt, organsko kemijo za to molekulo in jo naredite v napravi. In tako lahko naredite svojo molekulo v tiskalniku z uporabo te programske opreme.
So what could this mean? Well, ultimately, it could mean that you could print your own medicine. And this is what we're doing in the lab at the moment.
Kaj bi to lahko pomenilo? No, navsezadnje bi lahko pomenilo, da bi si natisnili svoje zdravilo. In to trenutno počnemo v laboratoriju.
But to take baby steps to get there, first of all we want to look at drug design and production, or drug discovery and manufacturing. Because if we can manufacture it after we've discovered it, we could deploy it anywhere. You don't need to go to the chemist anymore. We can print drugs at point of need. We can download new diagnostics. Say a new super bug has emerged. You put it in your search engine, and you create the drug to treat the threat. So this allows you on-the-fly molecular assembly.
Ampak, da bi do tega prišli z majhnimi koraki, moramo najprej pogledati oblikovanje in izdelavo zdravil, ali pa odkrivanje zdravil in proizvodnjo. Ker, če jo lahko proizvedemo, potem ko smo jo odkrili, bi jo lahko namestili kamorkoli. Ni nam treba več k farmacevtu. Lahko natisnemo zdravila, ko jih potrebujemo. Lahko naložimo nove diagnostične metode. Recimo, da se pojavi nova superbakterija. Daš jo v svoj iskalnik in ustvariš zdravilo za zdravljenje te grožnje. Tako ti to dovoljuje sprotno sestavljanje molekul.
But perhaps for me the core bit going into the future is this idea of taking your own stem cells, with your genes and your environment, and you print your own personal medicine.
Ampak mogoče je zame glavni del za prihodnost ta ideja, da bi vzeli svoje izvorne celice z vašimi geni in vašim okoljem in si natisnili svoje lastno zdravilo.
And if that doesn't seem fanciful enough, where do you think we're going to go? Well, you're going to have your own personal matter fabricator. Beam me up, Scotty.
in če se vam to ne zdi dovolj domišljeno, kam mislite, da bomo šli? No, imeli boste svoj lastni izdelovalec žive snovi. Prežarči me, Scotty.
(Applause)
(Aplavz)