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)