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?
有机化学家制作分子, 非常复杂的分子, 把大的分子割成小的 再反过来。 作为一名化学家, 我几年前便问我的研究小组, 我们可能做出很酷的通用化学设置吗? 本质上讲,我们可以把化学软件化吗?
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.
这意味什么,我们又可以怎么做? 这样开始吧, 我们用一台3D打印机 开始把我们烧杯和试管打印在一面 然后在另一面同时打印上分子 然后将两者在我们称之为感应件的仪器当中合并。 打印容器的同时,进性化学过程 我们可能会开始接近这个通用的化学工具箱。
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.
这又意味什么? 如果我们可把生物和化学网络做成像搜索引擎一样, 当您有哪个细胞生病了,需要治愈 或你想杀菌, 若您将这组件嵌在您的设备里 同时,你进行化学过程 您便可以用新方法做出药品。
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.
那么,我们如何在实验室中做这个呢? 它需要软件和硬件 它也需要化学油墨。 最酷的一点是, 我们想要一套通用的油墨 可以和打印机一同推出 您下载蓝图,您需要的分子的有机化学过程 在该设备里做。 因此,你可以用这套软件造你的分子。
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.
这意味什么? 最终,这意味您可以打印你自己的药。 而这是我们目前在实验室里所做。
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.
但是,要一步步的达到那里, 首先,我们在看药物的设计和产品, 或药物的发现和制造。 因为如果我们能找到它,制造它, 我们便可以任何地方调配它。 您再也不需要去找化学家。 我们可以打印需要的药品。 我们可以下载新的诊断方法。 那么说,一个新的超级"bug"已经出现。 把它放到你的搜索引擎, 您就可以创建药物来治疗病痛。 这允许您随时进行分子组装。
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.
但,对我来说,未来最核心的部分 是照你自己的干细胞, 结合你的基因和环境, 来打印你自己须要的药。
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.
如果这看起来还不够科幻的话, 你觉得我们该往哪方向去? 嗯,你也要有自己的计划喔。 把我传上飞船。(电视剧"Star Trek"的标志性台词)
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