Print your own medicine
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0:01 - 0:03Organic chemists make molecules,
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0:03 - 0:05very complicated molecules,
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0:05 - 0:09by chopping up a big molecule into small molecules
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0:09 - 0:11and reverse engineering.
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0:11 - 0:12And as a chemist,
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0:12 - 0:15one of the things I wanted to ask my research group a couple of years ago is,
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0:15 - 0:19could we make a really cool universal chemistry set?
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0:19 - 0:24In essence, could we "app" chemistry?
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0:24 - 0:28Now what would this mean, and how would we do it?
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0:28 - 0:30Well to start to do this,
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0:30 - 0:31we took a 3D printer
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0:31 - 0:36and we started to print our beakers and our test tubes on one side
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0:36 - 0:40and then print the molecule at the same time on the other side
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0:40 - 0:43and combine them together in what we call reactionware.
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0:43 - 0:47And so by printing the vessel and doing the chemistry at the same time,
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0:47 - 0:52we may start to access this universal toolkit of chemistry.
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0:52 - 0:54Now what could this mean?
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0:54 - 0:59Well if we can embed biological and chemical networks like a search engine,
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0:59 - 1:02so if you have a cell that's ill that you need to cure
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1:02 - 1:04or bacteria that you want to kill,
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1:04 - 1:06if you have this embedded in your device
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1:06 - 1:09at the same time, and you do the chemistry,
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1:09 - 1:13you may be able to make drugs in a new way.
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1:13 - 1:15So how are we doing this in the lab?
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1:15 - 1:18Well it requires software, it requires hardware
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1:18 - 1:20and it requires chemical inks.
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1:20 - 1:22And so the really cool bit is,
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1:22 - 1:25the idea is that we want to have a universal set of inks
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1:25 - 1:27that we put out with the printer,
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1:27 - 1:31and you download the blueprint, the organic chemistry for that molecule
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1:31 - 1:34and you make it in the device.
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1:34 - 1:40And so you can make your molecule in the printer using this software.
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1:40 - 1:42So what could this mean?
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1:42 - 1:47Well, ultimately, it could mean that you could print your own medicine.
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1:47 - 1:49And this is what we're doing in the lab at the moment.
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1:49 - 1:51But to take baby steps to get there,
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1:51 - 1:54first of all we want to look at drug design and production,
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1:54 - 1:56or drug discovery and manufacturing.
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1:56 - 1:59Because if we can manufacture it after we've discovered it,
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1:59 - 2:02we could deploy it anywhere.
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2:02 - 2:04You don't need to go to the chemist anymore.
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2:04 - 2:06We can print drugs at point of need.
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2:06 - 2:09We can download new diagnostics.
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2:09 - 2:11Say a new super bug has emerged.
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2:11 - 2:12You put it in your search engine,
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2:12 - 2:16and you create the drug to treat the threat.
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2:16 - 2:19So this allows you on-the-fly molecular assembly.
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2:19 - 2:22But perhaps for me the core bit going into the future
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2:22 - 2:26is this idea of taking your own stem cells,
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2:26 - 2:27with your genes and your environment,
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2:27 - 2:31and you print your own personal medicine.
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2:31 - 2:33And if that doesn't seem fanciful enough,
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2:33 - 2:35where do you think we're going to go?
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2:35 - 2:40Well, you're going to have your own personal matter fabricator.
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2:40 - 2:42Beam me up, Scotty.
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2:42 - 2:45(Applause)
- Title:
- Print your own medicine
- Speaker:
- Lee Cronin
- Description:
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Chemist Lee Cronin is working on a 3D printer that, instead of objects, is able to print molecules. An exciting potential long-term application: printing your own medicine using chemical inks.
- Video Language:
- English
- Team:
- closed TED
- Project:
- TEDTalks
- Duration:
- 03:06
Thu-Huong Ha edited English subtitles for Print your own medicine | ||
Thu-Huong Ha approved English subtitles for Print your own medicine | ||
Thu-Huong Ha edited English subtitles for Print your own medicine | ||
Morton Bast accepted English subtitles for Print your own medicine | ||
Morton Bast edited English subtitles for Print your own medicine | ||
Timothy Covell added a translation |