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