You may not realize this, but there are more bacteria in your body than stars in our entire galaxy. This fascinating universe of bacteria inside of us is an integral part of our health, and our technology is evolving so rapidly that today we can program these bacteria like we program computers.
Pode que non sexan conscientes disto, pero hai máis bacterias no voso corpo ca estrelas en toda a galaxia. Este fascinante universo de bacterias no noso interior é unha parte esencial da nosa saúde, e a nosa tecnoloxía evoluciona tan rápido que hoxe podemos programar estas bacterias igual que programamos computadores.
Now, the diagram that you see here, I know it looks like some kind of sports play, but it is actually a blueprint of the first bacterial program I developed. And like writing software, we can print and write DNA into different algorithms and programs inside of bacteria. What this program does is produces fluorescent proteins in a rhythmic fashion and generates a small molecule that allows bacteria to communicate and synchronize, as you're seeing in this movie. The growing colony of bacteria that you see here is about the width of a human hair. Now, what you can't see is that our genetic program instructs these bacteria to each produce small molecules, and these molecules travel between the thousands of individual bacteria telling them when to turn on and off. And the bacteria synchronize quite well at this scale, but because the molecule that synchronizes them together can only travel so fast, in larger colonies of bacteria, this results in traveling waves between bacteria that are far away from each other, and you can see these waves going from right to left across the screen.
O diagrama que vemos aquí, parece a xogada de algún deporte, mais é en realidade una mostra do primeiro programa bacteriano que creei. E o mesmo que escribir código, podemos imprimir e programar ADN en forma de diferentes algoritmos e programas dentro das bacterias. O que este programa produce son proteínas fluorescentes dun xeito rítmico e xera unha pequena molécula que permite ás bacterias comunicarse e sincronizarse, como poden ver neste filme. A crecente colonia de bacterias que ven aquí é do ancho aproximado dun pelo humano. O que non poden ver é que o noso programa xenético ensina a estas bacterias a produciren cada unha pequenas moléculas, e estas moléculas viaxan entre as miles de bacterias individuais dicíndolles cando acenderse e apagarse. E as bacterias sincronízanse bastante ben a esta escala, mais debido a que a molécula que as sincroniza só pode viaxar a unha determinada velocidade, en colonias maiores de bacterias, isto resulta en ondas viaxando entre bacterias que están lonxe unhas de outras, e poden ver estas ondas viaxando de dereita a esquerda na pantalla.
Now, our genetic program relies on a natural phenomenon called quorum sensing, in which bacteria trigger coordinated and sometimes virulent behaviors once they reach a critical density. You can observe quorum sensing in action in this movie, where a growing colony of bacteria only begins to glow once it reaches a high or critical density. Our genetic program continues producing these rhythmic patterns of fluorescent proteins as the colony grows outwards. This particular movie and experiment we call The Supernova, because it looks like an exploding star.
O noso programa xenético depende dun fenómeno natural, coñecido como a percepción do quórum, no cal as bacterias causan comportamentos cooperativos e virulentos ao alcanzaren unha densidade crítica. Vexan a percepción do quórum en acción nesta película, onde a crecente colonia de bacteria só brilla cando acada unha densidade alta ou crítica. O noso programa xenético produce patróns rítmicos de proteínas fluorescentes a medida que a colonia crece. Esta película e experimento recibe o nome de A Supernova, porque semella una estrela estoupando.
Now, besides programming these beautiful patterns, I wondered, what else can we get these bacteria to do? And I decided to explore how we can program bacteria to detect and treat diseases in our bodies like cancer. One of the surprising facts about bacteria is that they can naturally grow inside of tumors. This happens because typically tumors are areas where the immune system has no access, and so bacteria find these tumors and use them as a safe haven to grow and thrive. We started using probiotic bacteria which are safe bacteria that have a health benefit, and found that when orally delivered to mice, these probiotics would selectively grow inside of liver tumors. We realized that the most convenient way to highlight the presence of the probiotics, and hence, the presence of the tumors, was to get these bacteria to produce a signal that would be detectable in the urine, and so we specifically programmed these probiotics to make a molecule that would change the color of your urine to indicate the presence of cancer. We went on to show that this technology could sensitively and specifically detect liver cancer, one that is challenging to detect otherwise.
Ademáis de programar estes fermosos patróns, Pregúntome, que máis podemos obter destas bacterias? E decidín explorar como podemos programar as bacterias para detectarmos e tratarmos doenzas coma o cancro. Un dos feitos máis sorprendentes das bacterias é que poden crecer de maneira natural dentro de tumores. Isto ocorre porque os tumores son áreas onde o sistema inmunitario non ten acceso e así as bacterias atopan estes tumores e os usan como lugar protexido para crecer e multiplicarse. Comezamos usando bacterias probióticas que son bacterias inócuas con beneficios saudables, e descubrín que, ao seren inxeridas oralmente por ratos, estas probióticas crecían selectivamente dentro de tumores de fígado. Decatámonos de que o xeito máis conveniente de salientar a presenza das probióticas, e, por tanto, a presenza dos tumores, era facermos que as bacterias emitisen un sinal que sería detectable na urina, e así programamos específicamente estas probióticas para facermos unha molécula que cambiase a cor da urina para indicar a presenza de cancro. Demostramos que esta tecnoloxía podería detectar o cancro de fígado de forma sensible e específica, un cancro que é difícil de atopar doutro xeito.
Now, since these bacteria specifically localize to tumors, we've been programming them to not only detect cancer but also to treat cancer by producing therapeutic molecules from within the tumor environment that shrink the existing tumors, and we've been doing this using quorum sensing programs like you saw in the previous movies.
Pois ben, xa que estas bacterias se adhiren a tumores, estamos a programalas non só para detectarmos o cancro senón tamén para tratarmos o cancro producindo moléculas terapéuticas dende o interior do tumor que reducen os tumores existentes, e fixémolo con programas que usan a percepción do quórum como viron en anteriores filmes.
Altogether, imagine in the future taking a programmed probiotic that could detect and treat cancer, or even other diseases. Our ability to program bacteria and program life opens up new horizons in cancer research, and to share this vision, I worked with artist Vik Muniz to create the symbol of the universe, made entirely out of bacteria or cancer cells. Ultimately, my hope is that the beauty and purpose of this microscopic universe can inspire new and creative approaches for the future of cancer research.
Imaxinen inserirmos no futuro unha probiótica programada que poida detectar e tratar o cancro, e incluso outras enfermedades. A habilidade de programarmos bacterias e programar vida abre novos horizontes na investigación do cancro, para compartir esta visión, traballei co artista Vik Muniz para crearmos o símbolo do universo, feito enteiramente de bacterias ou células canceríxenas. A Miña esperanza é que a beleza e propósito deste universo microscópico poida inspirar enfoques novos e creativos na investigación do cancro.
Thank you.
Grazas.
(Applause)
(Aplausos)