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.
Možda ovo ne shvatate, ali u našim telima ima više bakterija nego zvezda u celoj našoj galaksiji. Fascinantni univerzum bakterija koji se nalazi u nama ključni je deo našeg zdravlja i naša tehnologija se razvija tako brzo da danas možemo možemo programirati ove bakterije poput kompjutera.
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.
Dijagram koji ovde vidite, znam da izgleda kao neki plan igre, ali je to zapravo nacrt prvog programa za bakterije koji sam razvio. Baš poput pisanja softverskog koda, možemo štampati i pisati DNK u razne algoritme i programe unutar bakterija. Ovaj program proizvodi fluorescentne proteine u ritmu i stvara maleni molekul koji bakterijama omogućava da komuniciraju i razmnožavaju se, kao što vidite na ovom filmu. Rastuća kolonija bakterija koju vidite ovde otprilike je širine ljudske dlake. Ono što ne možete da vidite je to da naš genetski program daje instrukcije ovim bakterijama da svaka proizvodi male molekule i ovi molekuli putuju između hiljada pojedinačnih bakterija i govore im kada da se uključe i isključe. Bakterije se na ovoj razmeri sinhronizuju prilično dobro, ali pošto molekul koji ih sinhonizuje može da putuje samo na određenoj brzini, u velikim kolonijama bakterija, ovo za posledicu ima talase koji putuju između bakterija koje su međusobno udaljene i možete videti kako ovi talasi idu zdesna na levo preko ekrana.
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.
Naš genetski programa oslanja se na prirodnu pojavu koja se naziva detekcija kvoruma gde bakterije pokreću koordinisano i ponekad virusno ponašanje kada dođu do kritične gustine. Možete posmatrati detekciju kvoruma na delu u ovom snimku, gde kolonija bakterija koja raste počinje da sija tek onda kada dođe do visoke ili kritične gustine. Naš genetski program nastavlja da proizvodi ove ritmičke šablone fluorescentnih proteina kako kolonija raste ka spolja. Ovaj naročiti snimak i eksperiment nazivamo Supernova jer izgleda kao zvezda koja eksplodira.
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.
Pored programiranja ovih predivnih šablona, zapitao sam se, šta još možemo da nateramo bakterije da urade? Odlučio sam da istražim kako možemo programirati bakterije da otkriju i leče bolesti u našem telu poput raka. Jedna od iznenađujućih činjenica u vezi sa bakterijama je da mogu prirodno da rastu unutar tumora. Ovo se dešava jer su tumori obično područja gde imuni sistem nema pristup, i bakterije tako nalaze ove tumore i koriste ih kao bezbednu luku da rastu i napreduju. Počeli smo da koristimo probiotičke bakterije koje su bezbedne i imaju zdravstvenu korist, i otkrili smo da kada ih miševi oralno konzumiraju, ove bakterije će selektivno rasti unutar tumora jetre. Shvatili smo da je najzgodniji način da se obeleži prisustvo probiotika i stoga prisustvo tumora, taj da ove bakterije nateramo da proizvode signal koji se može otkriti u urinu i tako smo posebno programirali ove probiotike da stvaraju molekule koji bi promenili boju vašeg urina tako da prikazuje prisustvo raka. Dalje smo pokazali da ova tehnologija može senzorno i isključivo da otkrije rak jetre, koji je inače težak za otkriti.
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.
Pošto se ove bakterije posebno lokalizuju na tumore, programirali smo ih ne samo da otkriju rak, već i da leče rak proizvodeći terapeutske molekule iz unutrašnjosti okruženja tumora, koji bi smanjivali postojeće tumore i ovo smo radili koristeći programe za detekciju kvoruma kao što ste videli u prethodnim snimcima.
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.
Na kraju, možete zamisliti da u budućnosti uzimate programirani probiotik koji bi mogao da otkrije i leči rak ili čak i druge bolesti. Naša sposobnost da programiramo bakterije i programiramo život otvara nove horizonte u istraživanju raka i da bih podelio ovu zamisao, radio sam s umetnikom Vikom Munizom da bih stvorio simbol univerzuma, stvoren u potpunosti od bakterija ili ćelija raka. Na kraju, moj cilj je da lepota i svrha ovog mikroskopskog univerzuma može da nadahne kreativne pristupe za buduća istraživanja raka.
Thank you.
Hvala vam.
(Applause)
(Aplauz)