Playing with biobricks | Manuel Giménez | TEDxUBA

This talk was given at a TEDx event organized independently from TED conferences.

Manuel Giménez shows us the world of Sinthetic Biology and tells us how can we build solutionts to some of society's greater issues, one biobrick at a time.

When I was a boy,
I used to love playing with Legos

It was something I was truly fond of.

I remember I had a box
with a castle drawn on it

and obviously, it came
with the instructions to build that castle

and I liked taking those blocks

to build something completely different,

that had nothing to do with a castle.

That's what I loved most about Legos,

the creative freedom they gave me.

Of course, at some point,
I stopped playing with Legos,

I finished Elementary School,
then High School

and I was lucky enough to get into College

and studied Computer Sciences, here,
at Buenos Aires University.

I found in programming
that same creative freedom

I had with Legos when I was a boy.

To me, programming has to do
with taking code blocks,

pieces of code that already exist,
assemble them, combine them

to build completely new software
with a new function.

Two years ago,
during my last days as a student,

so to speak, I came across
a different kind of block

that made me feel again
that same creative freedom

as those Legos did when I was little.

Two years ago, I discovered
Synthetic Biology

and came across bioblocks,
also called "biobricks"

for the first time in my life.

A biobrick is not made out
of plastic or code.

A biobrick is made out of DNA,
one of life's essential molecules.

DNA is the molecule that holds
all the genetic data of a living being.

A biobrick is a tiny piece of DNA,

a portion of DNA

that codes or captures
a basic biological function.

As, for example, the ability
that fireflies have to produce light,

or the capacity that many plants
and animals have

to emanate certain
odors or irradiate certain colors

or the ability that certain microorganisms

have to degrade sustances and materials.

What's interesting and potentially useful
about biobricks

is that just like with Legos,

we can assemble and combine them
in many different ways

in order to build new organisms
that don't exist in nature,

with completely new capabilities.

When you start to play
with these biobricks,

really crazy stuff can happen!

For instance, light sensitive
photographic film,

but made out of bacterias
instead of chemicals.

So, it's film that's actually alive!

Some have built microorganisms
with biobricks

able to generate light.

Just like fireflies,
but they're not fireflies

they're bacteria that only need a couple
of nutrients in the water they live in

to produce light.

Some people, using biobricks,
have even developed

micro-organisms capable
of producing different colors.

You may not see it clearly,
but they're very different colors

as different as the colors of a rainbow.

And working with biobricks,
some people went even further

and built bacteria that can produce

some very little filaments of spider web,

made out of the same material
as spider webs,

which is very resistent.

But they're not spiders, they're bacteria,

similar to those we can find in yoghurt.

Furthermore, bacteria communities
that behave like digital circuits

have been built using biobricks.

Circuits like those found
in our computers, our iPads.

All those things I'm telling you

sound like Sci-fi, but they're not.

They're things that already exist,
that have already been developed

and I'm sure you're thinking,

"OK, but I'm sure that this kind of stuff

is made by Nobel Prize winners
in great research centers,

with cutting-edge technology"

No, actually, they are not.

These things are made
by university students,

graduate students,

that is young people
aged 19, 23, under 25.

Ok, but now you're thinking,
"Well, but I'm sure that these are MIT,

Harvard, Imperial College,
or Boston University students"

Well, I'm sure there are people
from those universities

working with biobricks;

but here at the Natural
and Exact Science Faculty,

part of our own Buenos Aires University,

a group of students is
working and assembling biobricks.

We, and I say "we"
because with these students,

there is a group of graduates with them,

we set as our goal to use biobricks

to tackle some important problem
within our country.

An Argentinian problem.

You may not know this, but our country
is one of the top 5 countries

with the most arsenic
within its territory.

Arsenic is a natural pollutant
that's in the ground

and when you ingests it,
it has very serious consequences

to your health in the long term.

Cancer, for example.

Oops.
(Laughter)

The problem is, there are hundreds
of thousands of Argentinians

that are consuming it unknowingly.

And they don't know it
because nobody checked

if their water supply was polluted or not,

because they don't have
a simple, safe and cheap way

to check for themselves.

And that's what we're trying
to achieve with biobricks.

What did we do?
Well, we went to the "box" of biobricks,

a free access central repository

because this is open technology,
you don't have to pay to use it,

and started browsing in this biobrick
repository to see what was available;

and we found, on the one hand,
a biobrick that captured the capacity

that some organisms have to know
whether there is arsenic near them.

And on the other hand, we found
a biobrick that captures

the ability of some other organisms
to generate color.

We took these biobrick, assemble them

and through a series of technical
intricate processes, we managed to build

a new organism
that doesn't exist in nature

and when in arsenic polluted
water, it produces a color.

What has this organism got to do
with the problem we wanted to tackle?

This new organism is the key technology

behind an arsenic detection kit
we are building.

I'd like to say that we're building it
with people

from the F.A.D.U. (Architecture,
Design and Urbanism College).

An arsenic detection kit
that we designed it to be palm size

so it can be delivered
anywhere in the country,

so it can be simple and safe to use,

and, above all, cheap to manufacture.

Because no technical knowledge
is required to use it,

you just need to take a sample
from the water tap,

the water pump, or wherever, put it
in the device and wait a couple of hours

and it'll generate a color.

The only thing left to do
is to observe that color.

and the intensity
of that color and you'll know

if the water you were about to drink
had any arsenic or not.

We really hope, at some point,

to mass produce this device,
distribute it and provide a solution

to those hundreds of thousands
of our compatriots

poisoning themselves with the water
they drink without even knowing it.

Now,

think for a second

If we, a group of fewer than
20 people, working a lot,

in less than a year, and also
working on a side projet -

because this wasn't our main project -

and using some biobricks,

were able to embark in the development
of this arsenic detection kit,

how many other things can we build

if we start combining
hundreds of biobricks

that are available for free
inside that "box"?

How many Argentinian problems

and wordwide problems

could we tackle with this technology?

I'm convinced...

I'm absolutelly convinced

that Sinthetic Biology will be
one of the most impotant technologies

for the years to come.

And I'm also convinced
that our country, Argentina,

and the whole region - Latin America -
not only has the capacity

but also the opportunity to pioneer
in the development of this technology.

What we need is that all of you,
who are here today,

and also those who aren't, to dare -

as I dared 2 years ago -

and start to play with biobricks.

Especially the young ones, that I can see
are many in this auditorium.

What I want is for young people to play
with biobrick at their high schools.

I want young people to assemble
and build using biobricks

in universities all over the country.

I also want young people
to play with biobricks

outside the formal places of education.

And, why not, let's say,
middle school students

taking their first steps
into Synthetic Biology.

I know this is a very ambitious goal,
a huge goal.

But if there's something I learned,

it's that in this life, if you want
to build something big

if you want to build something really big,

not only do you need a lot pieces

but also a lot of hands.

Thank you.

(Applause)