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

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It was something I was truly fond of.

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

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

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and I liked taking those blocks

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to build something completely different,

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that had nothing to do with a castle.

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That's what I loved most about Legos,

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the creative freedom they gave me.

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

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I finished Elementary School,
then High School

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and I was lucky enough to get into College

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

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I found in programming
that same creative freedom

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I had with Legos when I was a boy.

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

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

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to build completely new software
with a new function.

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

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

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that made me feel again
that same creative freedom

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as those Legos did when I was little.

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Two years ago, I discovered
Synthetic Biology

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and came across bioblocks,
also called "biobricks"

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for the first time in my life.

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A biobrick is not made out
of plastic or code.

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

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

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A biobrick is a tiny piece of DNA,

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a portion of DNA

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that codes or captures
a basic biological function.

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

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or the capacity that many plants
and animals have

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to emanate certain
odors or irradiate certain colors

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or the ability that certain microorganisms

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have to degrade sustances and materials.

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What's interesting and potentially useful
about biobricks

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is that just like with Legos,

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we can assemble and combine them
in many different ways

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

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with completely new capabilities.

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When you start to play
with these biobricks,

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really crazy stuff can happen!

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For instance, light sensitive
photographic film,

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but made out of bacterias
instead of chemicals.

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

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Some have built microorganisms
with biobricks

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able to generate light.

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Just like fireflies,
but they're not fireflies

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

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to produce light.

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Some people, using biobricks,
have even developed

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micro-organisms capable
of producing different colors.

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

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as different as the colors of a rainbow.

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And working with biobricks,
some people went even further

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and built bacteria that can produce

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some very little filaments of spider web,

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made out of the same material
as spider webs,

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which is very resistent.

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

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similar to those we can find in yoghurt.

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Furthermore, bacteria communities
that behave like digital circuits

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have been built using biobricks.

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Circuits like those found
in our computers, our iPads.

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All those things I'm telling you

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

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

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and I'm sure you're thinking,

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

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is made by Nobel Prize winners
in great research centers,

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with cutting-edge technology"

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No, actually, they are not.

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These things are made
by university students,

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graduate students,

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

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

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Harvard, Imperial College,
or Boston University students"

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

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working with biobricks;

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but here at the Natural
and Exact Science Faculty,

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part of our own Buenos Aires University,

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a group of students is
working and assembling biobricks.

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

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there is a group of graduates with them,

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we set as our goal to use biobricks

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to tackle some important problem
within our country.

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An Argentinian problem.

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

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with the most arsenic
within its territory.

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Arsenic is a natural pollutant
that's in the ground

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and when you ingests it,
it has very serious consequences

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to your health in the long term.

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Cancer, for example.

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Oops.
(Laughter)

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The problem is, there are hundreds
of thousands of Argentinians

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that are consuming it unknowingly.

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And they don't know it
because nobody checked

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if their water supply was polluted or not,

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

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to check for themselves.

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

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

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a free access central repository

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

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

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

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

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

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the ability of some other organisms
to generate color.

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We took these biobrick, assemble them

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

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a new organism
that doesn't exist in nature

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

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

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This new organism is the key technology

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behind an arsenic detection kit
we are building.

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

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

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

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so it can be delivered
anywhere in the country,

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so it can be simple and safe to use,

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and, above all, cheap to manufacture.

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Because no technical knowledge
is required to use it,

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

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

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and it'll generate a color.

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

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and the intensity
of that color and you'll know

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

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We really hope, at some point,

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

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to those hundreds of thousands
of our compatriots

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

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Now,

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think for a second

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

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

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because this wasn't our main project -

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and using some biobricks,

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

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how many other things can we build

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if we start combining
hundreds of biobricks

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that are available for free
inside that "box"?

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How many Argentinian problems

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and wordwide problems

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could we tackle with this technology?

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I'm convinced...

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I'm absolutelly convinced

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that Sinthetic Biology will be
one of the most impotant technologies

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for the years to come.

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

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

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

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

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and also those who aren't, to dare -

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as I dared 2 years ago -

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and start to play with biobricks.

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

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

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I want young people to assemble
and build using biobricks

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in universities all over the country.

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I also want young people
to play with biobricks

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outside the formal places of education.

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

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taking their first steps
into Synthetic Biology.

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

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But if there's something I learned,

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

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if you want to build something really big,

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not only do you need a lot pieces


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but also a lot of hands.

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Thank you.

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(Applause)