0:00:00.316,0:00:02.838 What I want you all to do right now 0:00:02.838,0:00:07.029 is to think of this mammal that I'm going to describe to you. 0:00:07.029,0:00:09.877 The first thing I'm going to tell you about this mammal 0:00:09.877,0:00:14.205 is that it is essential for our ecosystems to function correctly. 0:00:14.205,0:00:17.267 If we remove this mammal from our ecosystems, 0:00:17.267,0:00:20.339 they simply will not work. 0:00:20.339,0:00:22.029 That's the first thing. 0:00:22.029,0:00:26.706 The second thing is that due to the unique sensory abilities 0:00:26.706,0:00:30.860 of this mammal, if we study this mammal, 0:00:30.860,0:00:34.422 we're going to get great insight into our diseases 0:00:34.422,0:00:38.958 of the senses, such as blindness and deafness. 0:00:38.958,0:00:43.728 And the third really intriguing aspect of this mammal 0:00:43.728,0:00:48.922 is that I fully believe that the secret of everlasting youth 0:00:48.922,0:00:52.977 lies deep within its DNA. 0:00:52.977,0:00:55.285 So are you all thinking? 0:00:55.285,0:00:57.779 So, 0:00:57.779,0:01:00.881 magnificent creature, isn't it? 0:01:00.881,0:01:04.233 Who here thought of a bat? 0:01:04.233,0:01:06.864 Ah, I can see half the audience agrees with me, 0:01:06.864,0:01:10.087 and I have a lot of work to do to convince the rest of you. 0:01:10.087,0:01:14.345 So I have had the good fortune for the past 20 years 0:01:14.345,0:01:18.744 to study these fascinating and beautiful mammals. 0:01:18.744,0:01:22.506 One fifth of all living mammals is a bat, 0:01:22.506,0:01:24.918 and they have very unique attributes. 0:01:24.918,0:01:27.946 Bats as we know them have been around on this planet 0:01:27.946,0:01:31.929 for about 64 million years. 0:01:31.929,0:01:35.394 One of the most unique things that bats do 0:01:35.394,0:01:38.195 as a mammal is that they fly. 0:01:38.195,0:01:41.530 Now flight is an inherently difficult thing. 0:01:41.530,0:01:45.473 Flight within vertebrates has only evolved three times: 0:01:45.473,0:01:48.833 once in the bats, once in the birds, 0:01:48.833,0:01:50.928 and once in the pterodactyls. 0:01:50.928,0:01:54.774 And so with flight, it's very metabolically costly. 0:01:54.774,0:01:58.704 Bats have learned and evolved how to deal with this. 0:01:58.704,0:02:03.090 But one other extremely unique thing about bats 0:02:03.090,0:02:05.139 is that they are able to use sound 0:02:05.139,0:02:09.935 to perceive their environment. They use echolocation. 0:02:09.935,0:02:12.599 Now, what I mean by echolocation -- 0:02:12.599,0:02:16.104 they emit a sound from their larynx out through their mouth 0:02:16.104,0:02:20.000 or through their nose. This sound wave comes out 0:02:20.000,0:02:24.087 and it reflects and echoes back off objects in their environment, 0:02:24.087,0:02:26.947 and the bats then hear these echoes 0:02:26.947,0:02:30.465 and they turn this information into an acoustic image. 0:02:30.465,0:02:35.093 And this enables them to orient in complete darkness. 0:02:35.093,0:02:38.518 Indeed, they do look very strange. We're humans. 0:02:38.518,0:02:41.713 We're a visual species. When scientists first realized 0:02:41.713,0:02:45.654 that bats were actually using sound to be able to fly 0:02:45.654,0:02:48.629 and orient and move at night, we didn't believe it. 0:02:48.629,0:02:51.653 For a hundred years, despite evidence to show 0:02:51.653,0:02:54.892 that this is what they were doing, we didn't believe it. 0:02:54.892,0:02:58.860 Now, if you look at this bat, it looks a little bit alien. 0:02:58.860,0:03:02.158 Indeed, the very famous philosopher Thomas Nagel 0:03:02.158,0:03:05.663 once said, "To truly experience an alien life form 0:03:05.663,0:03:09.403 on this planet, you should lock yourself inside a room 0:03:09.403,0:03:13.528 with a flying, echolocating bat in complete darkness." 0:03:13.528,0:03:16.599 And if you look at the actual physical characteristics 0:03:16.599,0:03:19.556 on the face of this beautiful horseshoe bat, 0:03:19.556,0:03:22.350 you see a lot of these characteristics are dedicated 0:03:22.350,0:03:25.689 to be able to make sound and perceive it. 0:03:25.689,0:03:30.253 Very big ears, strange nose leaves, but teeny-tiny eyes. 0:03:30.253,0:03:34.142 So again, if you just look at this bat, you realize 0:03:34.142,0:03:37.416 sound is very important for its survival. 0:03:37.416,0:03:41.785 Most bats look like the previous one. 0:03:41.785,0:03:45.824 However, there are a group that do not use echolocation. 0:03:45.824,0:03:48.823 They do not perceive their environment using sound, 0:03:48.823,0:03:50.569 and these are the flying foxes. 0:03:50.569,0:03:53.839 If anybody has ever been lucky enough to be in Australia, 0:03:53.839,0:03:57.064 you've seen them coming out of the Botanic Gardens in Sydney, 0:03:57.064,0:04:00.249 and if you just look at their face, you can see 0:04:00.249,0:04:03.787 they have much, much larger eyes and much smaller ears. 0:04:03.787,0:04:07.309 So among and within bats is a huge variation 0:04:07.309,0:04:10.200 in their ability to use sensory perception. 0:04:10.200,0:04:12.253 Now this is going to be important for what I'm going 0:04:12.253,0:04:14.016 to tell you later during the talk. 0:04:14.016,0:04:19.095 Now, if the idea of bats in your belfry terrifies you, 0:04:19.095,0:04:21.964 and I know some people probably are feeling a little sick 0:04:21.964,0:04:25.168 looking at very large images of bats, 0:04:25.168,0:04:28.057 that's probably not that surprising, 0:04:28.057,0:04:30.384 because here in Western culture, 0:04:30.384,0:04:32.141 bats have been demonized. 0:04:32.141,0:04:34.805 Really, of course the famous book "Dracula," 0:04:34.805,0:04:37.888 written by a fellow Northside Dubliner Bram Stoker, 0:04:37.888,0:04:39.945 probably is mainly responsible for this. 0:04:39.945,0:04:43.025 However, I also think it's got to do with the fact 0:04:43.025,0:04:45.308 that bats come out at night, and we don't 0:04:45.308,0:04:47.960 really understand them. We're a little frightened by things 0:04:47.960,0:04:51.260 that can perceive the world slightly differently than us. 0:04:51.260,0:04:54.319 Bats are usually synonymous with some type of evil events. 0:04:54.319,0:04:57.184 They are the perpetrators in horror movies, 0:04:57.184,0:04:58.991 such as this famous "Nightwing." 0:04:58.991,0:05:01.752 Also, if you think about it, demons 0:05:01.752,0:05:05.467 always have bat wings, whereas birds, they typically -- 0:05:05.467,0:05:08.336 or angels have bird wings. 0:05:08.336,0:05:13.445 Now, this is Western society, and what I hope to do tonight 0:05:13.445,0:05:18.144 is to convince you of the Chinese traditional culture, 0:05:18.144,0:05:21.073 that they perceive bats as 0:05:21.073,0:05:24.657 creatures that bring good luck, and indeed, if you walk 0:05:24.657,0:05:29.001 into a Chinese home, you may see an image such as this. 0:05:29.001,0:05:31.183 This is considered the Five Blessings. 0:05:31.183,0:05:33.845 The Chinese word for "bat" sounds like the Chinese word 0:05:33.845,0:05:36.936 for "happiness," and they believe that bats 0:05:36.936,0:05:41.297 bring wealth, health, longevity, virtue and serenity. 0:05:41.297,0:05:44.657 And indeed, in this image, you have a picture of longevity 0:05:44.657,0:05:46.755 surrounded by five bats. 0:05:46.755,0:05:50.438 And what I want to do tonight is to talk to you 0:05:50.438,0:05:54.024 and to show you that at least three of these blessings 0:05:54.024,0:05:57.393 are definitely represented by a bat, and that if we study bats 0:05:57.393,0:06:01.656 we will get nearer to getting each of these blessings. 0:06:01.656,0:06:06.707 So, wealth -- how can a bat possibly bring us wealth? 0:06:06.707,0:06:10.217 Now as I said before, bats are essential for our ecosystems 0:06:10.217,0:06:13.889 to function correctly. And why is this? 0:06:13.889,0:06:18.003 Bats in the tropics are major pollinators of many plants. 0:06:18.003,0:06:20.995 They also feed on fruit, and they disperse the seeds 0:06:20.995,0:06:25.103 of these fruits. Bats are responsible for pollinating 0:06:25.103,0:06:28.756 the tequila plant, and this is a multi-million dollar industry 0:06:28.756,0:06:31.717 in Mexico. So indeed, we need them 0:06:31.717,0:06:34.109 for our ecosystems to function properly. 0:06:34.109,0:06:36.844 Without them, it's going to be a problem. 0:06:36.844,0:06:42.366 But most bats are voracious insect predators. 0:06:42.366,0:06:45.242 It's been estimated in the U.S., in a tiny colony 0:06:45.242,0:06:47.393 of big brown bats, that they will feed 0:06:47.393,0:06:50.963 on over a million insects a year, 0:06:50.963,0:06:53.906 and in the United States of America, right now 0:06:53.906,0:06:57.247 bats are being threatened by a disease known as white-nose syndrome. 0:06:57.247,0:07:00.487 It's working its way slowly across the U.S. and wiping out 0:07:00.487,0:07:04.247 populations of bats, and scientists have estimated 0:07:04.247,0:07:09.204 that 1,300 metric tons of insects a year are now 0:07:09.204,0:07:12.918 remaining in the ecosystems due to the loss of bats. 0:07:12.918,0:07:15.330 Bats are also threatened in the U.S. 0:07:15.330,0:07:19.169 by their attraction to wind farms. Again, right now 0:07:19.169,0:07:20.893 bats are looking at a little bit of a problem. 0:07:20.893,0:07:23.191 They're going to -- They are very threatened 0:07:23.191,0:07:26.736 in the United States of America alone. 0:07:26.736,0:07:28.277 Now how can this help us? 0:07:28.277,0:07:31.942 Well, it has been calculated that if we were to remove bats 0:07:31.942,0:07:34.336 from the equation, we're going to have to then use 0:07:34.336,0:07:37.277 insecticides to remove all those pest insects 0:07:37.277,0:07:40.352 that feed on our agricultural crops. 0:07:40.352,0:07:44.000 And for one year in the U.S. alone, it's estimated 0:07:44.000,0:07:46.942 that it's going to cost 22 billion U.S. dollars, 0:07:46.942,0:07:51.465 if we remove bats. So indeed, bats then do bring us wealth. 0:07:51.465,0:07:53.921 They maintain the health of our ecosystems, 0:07:53.921,0:07:56.410 and also they save us money. 0:07:56.410,0:07:59.297 So again, that's the first blessing. Bats are important 0:07:59.297,0:08:01.953 for our ecosystems. 0:08:01.953,0:08:05.953 And what about the second? What about health? 0:08:05.953,0:08:10.615 Inside every cell in your body lies your genome. 0:08:10.615,0:08:13.265 Your genome is made up of your DNA, 0:08:13.265,0:08:16.457 your DNA codes for proteins that enable you to function 0:08:16.457,0:08:19.377 and interact and be as you are. 0:08:19.377,0:08:23.839 Now since the new advancements in modern molecular technologies, 0:08:23.839,0:08:27.962 it is now possible for us to sequence our own genome 0:08:27.962,0:08:32.091 in a very rapid time and at a very, very reduced cost. 0:08:32.091,0:08:34.631 Now when we've been doing this, we've realized 0:08:34.631,0:08:38.448 that there's variations within our genome. 0:08:38.448,0:08:41.642 So I want you to look at the person beside you. 0:08:41.642,0:08:43.721 Just have a quick look. And what we need to realize 0:08:43.721,0:08:48.365 is that every 300 base pairs in your DNA, you're a little bit different. 0:08:48.365,0:08:50.630 And one of the grand challenges right now 0:08:50.630,0:08:53.226 in modern molecular medicine is to work out 0:08:53.226,0:08:58.068 whether this variation makes you more susceptible to diseases, 0:08:58.068,0:09:00.979 or does this variation just make you different? 0:09:00.979,0:09:03.385 Again, what does it mean here? What does this variation 0:09:03.385,0:09:07.204 actually mean? So if we are to capitalize on all of this 0:09:07.204,0:09:11.098 new molecular data and personalized genomic information 0:09:11.098,0:09:13.499 that is coming online that we will be able to have 0:09:13.499,0:09:16.571 in the next few years, we have to be able to differentiate 0:09:16.571,0:09:19.787 between the two. So how do we do this? 0:09:19.787,0:09:23.115 Well, I believe we just look at nature's experiments. 0:09:23.115,0:09:27.960 So through natural selection, over time, 0:09:27.960,0:09:33.077 mutations, variations that disrupt the function of a protein 0:09:33.077,0:09:35.698 will not be tolerated over time. 0:09:35.698,0:09:39.892 Evolution acts as a sieve. It sieves out the bad variation. 0:09:39.892,0:09:42.153 And so therefore, if you look at the same region 0:09:42.153,0:09:45.304 of a genome in many mammals that have been 0:09:45.304,0:09:48.808 evolutionarily distant from each other 0:09:48.808,0:09:52.271 and are also ecologically divergent, you will get a better 0:09:52.271,0:09:56.033 understanding of what the evolutionary prior of that site is, 0:09:56.033,0:09:59.912 i.e., if it is important for the mammal to function, 0:09:59.912,0:10:02.232 for its survival, it will be the same 0:10:02.232,0:10:06.983 in all of those different lineages, species, taxa. 0:10:06.983,0:10:10.260 So therefore, if we were to do this, 0:10:10.260,0:10:11.729 what we'd need to do is sequence that region 0:10:11.729,0:10:14.844 in all these different mammals and ascertain if it's the same 0:10:14.844,0:10:18.851 or if it's different. So if it is the same, 0:10:18.851,0:10:21.960 this indicates that that site is important for a function, 0:10:21.960,0:10:25.823 so a disease mutation should fall within that site. 0:10:25.823,0:10:29.560 So in this case here, if all the mammals that we look at 0:10:29.560,0:10:32.824 have a yellow-type genome at that site, 0:10:32.824,0:10:35.486 it probably suggests that purple is bad. 0:10:35.486,0:10:38.960 This could be even more powerful if you look at mammals 0:10:38.960,0:10:41.632 that are doing things slightly differently. 0:10:41.632,0:10:43.710 So say, for example, the region of the genome 0:10:43.710,0:10:47.239 that I was looking at was a region that's important for vision. 0:10:47.239,0:10:50.913 If we look at that region in mammals that don't see so well, 0:10:50.913,0:10:54.747 such as bats, and we find that bats that don't see so well 0:10:54.747,0:10:57.519 have the purple type, we know that this is probably 0:10:57.519,0:11:00.894 what's causing this disease. 0:11:00.894,0:11:05.087 So in my lab, we've been using bats to look at two different 0:11:05.087,0:11:08.435 types of diseases of the senses. 0:11:08.435,0:11:11.243 We're looking at blindness. Now why would you do this? 0:11:11.243,0:11:16.189 Three hundred and fourteen million people are visually impaired, and 0:11:16.189,0:11:19.780 45 million of these are blind. So blindness is a big problem, 0:11:19.780,0:11:23.995 and a lot of these blind disorders come from inherited diseases, 0:11:23.995,0:11:26.166 so we want to try and better understand 0:11:26.166,0:11:29.771 which mutations in the gene cause the disease. 0:11:29.771,0:11:33.679 Also we look at deafness. One in every 1,000 0:11:33.679,0:11:37.195 newborn babies are deaf, and when we reach 80, 0:11:37.195,0:11:40.253 over half of us will also have a hearing problem. 0:11:40.253,0:11:44.530 Again, there's many underlying genetic causes for this. 0:11:44.530,0:11:47.177 So what we've been doing in my lab 0:11:47.177,0:11:50.291 is looking at these unique sensory specialists, the bats, 0:11:50.291,0:11:52.839 and we have looked at genes that cause blindness 0:11:52.839,0:11:54.188 when there's a defect in them, 0:11:54.188,0:11:56.731 genes that cause deafness when there's a defect in them, 0:11:56.731,0:12:01.721 and now we can predict which sites are most likely to cause disease. 0:12:01.721,0:12:04.602 So bats are also important for our health, 0:12:04.602,0:12:09.492 to enable us to better understand how our genome functions. 0:12:09.492,0:12:11.911 So this is where we are right now, 0:12:11.911,0:12:13.811 but what about the future? 0:12:13.811,0:12:15.467 What about longevity? 0:12:15.467,0:12:19.208 This is where we're going to go, and as I said before, 0:12:19.208,0:12:22.287 I really believe that the secret of everlasting youth 0:12:22.287,0:12:23.996 lies within the bat genome. 0:12:23.996,0:12:28.112 So why should we be interested in aging at all? 0:12:28.112,0:12:30.600 Well, really, this is a picture drawn from the 1500s 0:12:30.600,0:12:34.416 of the Fountain of Youth. Aging is considered 0:12:34.416,0:12:38.051 one of the most familiar, yet the least well-understood, 0:12:38.051,0:12:41.013 aspects of all of biology, and really, 0:12:41.013,0:12:45.389 since the dawn of civilization, mankind has sought to avoid it. 0:12:45.389,0:12:48.434 But we are going to have to understand it a bit better. 0:12:48.434,0:12:52.063 In Europe alone, by 2050, there is going to be 0:12:52.063,0:12:55.878 a 70 percent increase of individuals over 65, 0:12:55.878,0:12:59.615 and 170 percent increase in individuals over 80. 0:12:59.615,0:13:02.456 As we age, we deteriorate, and this deterioration 0:13:02.456,0:13:07.218 causes problems for our society, so we have to address it. 0:13:07.218,0:13:11.732 So how could the secret of everlasting youth actually lie 0:13:11.732,0:13:14.413 within the bat genome? Does anybody want to hazard 0:13:14.413,0:13:18.371 a guess over how long this bat could live for? 0:13:18.371,0:13:21.396 Who -- put up your hands -- who says two years? 0:13:21.396,0:13:25.292 Nobody? One? How about 10 years? 0:13:25.292,0:13:29.144 Some? How about 30? 0:13:29.144,0:13:33.019 How about 40? Okay, it's a whole varied response. 0:13:33.019,0:13:36.670 This bat is myotis brandtii. It's the longest-living bat. 0:13:36.670,0:13:38.858 It lived for up to 42 years, 0:13:38.858,0:13:41.193 and this bat's still alive in the wild today. 0:13:41.193,0:13:43.775 But what would be so amazing about this? 0:13:43.775,0:13:48.857 Well, typically, in mammals there is a relationship 0:13:48.857,0:13:51.357 between body size, metabolic rate, 0:13:51.357,0:13:53.493 and how long you can live for, and you can predict 0:13:53.493,0:13:56.720 how long a mammal can live for given its body size. 0:13:56.720,0:14:00.415 So typically, small mammals live fast, die young. 0:14:00.415,0:14:03.154 Think of a mouse. But bats are very different. 0:14:03.154,0:14:05.970 As you can see here on this graph, in blue, 0:14:05.970,0:14:08.536 these are all other mammals, but bats 0:14:08.536,0:14:10.704 can live up to nine times longer than expected 0:14:10.704,0:14:13.846 despite having a really, really high metabolic rate, 0:14:13.846,0:14:16.481 and the question is, how can they do that? 0:14:16.481,0:14:20.022 There are 19 species of mammal that live longer 0:14:20.022,0:14:22.798 than expected, given their body size, than man, 0:14:22.798,0:14:25.646 and 18 of those are bats. 0:14:25.646,0:14:30.582 So therefore, they must have something within their DNA 0:14:30.582,0:14:33.427 that ables them to deal with the metabolic stresses, 0:14:33.427,0:14:37.333 particularly of flight. They expend three times more energy 0:14:37.333,0:14:38.873 than a mammal of the same size, 0:14:38.873,0:14:42.485 but don't seem to suffer the consequences or the effects. 0:14:42.485,0:14:45.830 So right now, in my lab, we're combining 0:14:45.830,0:14:49.741 state-of-the-art bat field biology, going out and catching 0:14:49.741,0:14:52.550 the long-lived bats, with the most up-to-date, 0:14:52.550,0:14:56.021 modern molecular technology to understand better 0:14:56.021,0:15:00.549 what it is that they do to stop aging as we do. 0:15:00.549,0:15:03.709 And hopefully in the next five years, I'll be giving you a TEDTalk on that. 0:15:03.709,0:15:07.308 Aging is a big problem for humanity, 0:15:07.308,0:15:10.244 and I believe that by studying bats, we can uncover 0:15:10.244,0:15:13.116 the molecular mechanisms that enable mammals 0:15:13.116,0:15:16.325 to achieve extraordinary longevity. If we find out 0:15:16.325,0:15:19.557 what they're doing, perhaps through gene therapy, 0:15:19.557,0:15:22.116 we can enable us to do the same thing. 0:15:22.116,0:15:27.392 Potentially, this means that we could halt aging or maybe even reverse it. 0:15:27.392,0:15:31.283 Just imagine what that would be like. 0:15:31.283,0:15:34.168 So really, I don't think we should be thinking of them 0:15:34.168,0:15:39.222 as flying demons of the night, but more as our superheroes. 0:15:39.222,0:15:43.068 And the reality is that bats can bring us so much benefit 0:15:43.068,0:15:45.620 if we just look in the right place. They're good for our ecosystem, 0:15:45.620,0:15:48.526 they allow us to understand how our genome functions, 0:15:48.526,0:15:51.755 and they potentially hold the secret to everlasting youth. 0:15:51.755,0:15:54.370 So tonight, when you walk out of here and you look up 0:15:54.370,0:15:57.869 in the night skies, and you see this beautiful flying mammal, 0:15:57.869,0:16:01.869 I want you to smile. Thank you. (Applause)