Body parts on a chip
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0:00 - 0:03We have a global health challenge
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0:03 - 0:04in our hands today,
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0:04 - 0:07and that is that the way we currently
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0:07 - 0:10discover and develop new drugs
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0:10 - 0:14is too costly, takes far too long,
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0:14 - 0:18and it fails more often than it succeeds.
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0:18 - 0:21It really just isn't working, and that means
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0:21 - 0:24that patients that badly need new therapies
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0:24 - 0:26are not getting them,
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0:26 - 0:30and diseases are going untreated.
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0:30 - 0:33We seem to be spending more and more money.
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0:33 - 0:37So for every billion dollars we spend in R&D,
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0:37 - 0:41we're getting less drugs approved into the market.
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0:41 - 0:44More money, less drugs. Hmm.
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0:44 - 0:46So what's going on here?
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0:46 - 0:48Well, there's a multitude of factors at play,
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0:48 - 0:50but I think one of the key factors
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0:50 - 0:53is that the tools that we currently have
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0:53 - 0:57available to test whether a drug is going to work,
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0:57 - 0:58whether it has efficacy,
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0:58 - 1:00or whether it's going to be safe
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1:00 - 1:04before we get it into human clinical trials,
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1:04 - 1:06are failing us. They're not predicting
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1:06 - 1:09what's going to happen in humans.
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1:09 - 1:12And we have two main tools available
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1:12 - 1:14at our disposal.
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1:14 - 1:18They are cells in dishes and animal testing.
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1:18 - 1:21Now let's talk about the first one, cells in dishes.
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1:21 - 1:24So, cells are happily functioning in our bodies.
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1:24 - 1:26We take them and rip them out
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1:26 - 1:29of their native environment,
throw them in one of these dishes, -
1:29 - 1:31and expect them to work.
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1:31 - 1:33Guess what. They don't.
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1:33 - 1:35They don't like that environment
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1:35 - 1:36because it's nothing like
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1:36 - 1:39what they have in the body.
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1:39 - 1:41What about animal testing?
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1:41 - 1:44Well, animals do and can provide
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1:44 - 1:46extremely useful information.
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1:46 - 1:48They teach us about what happens
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1:48 - 1:50in the complex organism.
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1:50 - 1:53We learn more about the biology itself.
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1:53 - 1:56However, more often than not,
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1:56 - 2:00animal models fail to predict
what will happen in humans -
2:00 - 2:04when they're treated with a particular drug.
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2:04 - 2:06So we need better tools.
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2:06 - 2:08We need human cells,
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2:08 - 2:10but we need to find a way to keep them happy
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2:10 - 2:12outside the body.
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2:12 - 2:15Our bodies are dynamic environments.
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2:15 - 2:17We're in constant motion.
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2:17 - 2:19Our cells experience that.
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2:19 - 2:22They're in dynamic environments in our body.
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2:22 - 2:25They're under constant mechanical forces.
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2:25 - 2:27So if we want to make cells happy
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2:27 - 2:28outside our bodies,
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2:28 - 2:31we need to become cell architects.
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2:31 - 2:35We need to design, build and engineer
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2:35 - 2:39a home away from home for the cells.
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2:39 - 2:40And at the Wyss Institute,
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2:40 - 2:42we've done just that.
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2:42 - 2:45We call it an organ-on-a-chip.
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2:45 - 2:47And I have one right here.
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2:47 - 2:50It's beautiful, isn't it?
But it's pretty incredible. -
2:50 - 2:54Right here in my hand is a breathing, living
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2:54 - 2:57human lung on a chip.
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2:57 - 2:59And it's not just beautiful.
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2:59 - 3:02It can do a tremendous amount of things.
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3:02 - 3:05We have living cells in that little chip,
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3:05 - 3:08cells that are in a dynamic environment
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3:08 - 3:11interacting with different cell types.
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3:11 - 3:13There's been many people
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3:13 - 3:14trying to grow cells in the lab.
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3:14 - 3:18They've tried many different approaches.
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3:18 - 3:20They've even tried to grow
little mini-organs in the lab. -
3:20 - 3:22We're not trying to do that here.
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3:22 - 3:24We're simply trying to recreate
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3:24 - 3:25in this tiny chip
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3:25 - 3:28the smallest functional unit
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3:28 - 3:31that represents the biochemistry,
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3:31 - 3:34the function and the mechanical strain
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3:34 - 3:38that the cells experience in our bodies.
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3:38 - 3:41So how does it work? Let me show you.
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3:41 - 3:43We use techniques from the computer chip
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3:43 - 3:45manufacturing industry
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3:45 - 3:47to make these structures at a scale
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3:47 - 3:50relevant to both the cells and their environment.
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3:50 - 3:52We have three fluidic channels.
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3:52 - 3:56In the center, we have a porous, flexible membrane
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3:56 - 3:58on which we can add human cells
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3:58 - 3:59from, say, our lungs,
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3:59 - 4:02and then underneath, they had capillary cells,
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4:02 - 4:04the cells in our blood vessels.
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4:04 - 4:08And we can then apply mechanical forces to the chip
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4:08 - 4:11that stretch and contract the membrane,
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4:11 - 4:14so the cells experience the same mechanical forces
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4:14 - 4:17that they did when we breathe.
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4:17 - 4:20And they experience them how they did in the body.
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4:20 - 4:22There's air flowing through the top channel,
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4:22 - 4:26and then we flow a liquid that contains nutrients
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4:26 - 4:28through the blood channel.
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4:28 - 4:31Now the chip is really beautiful,
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4:31 - 4:33but what can we do with it?
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4:33 - 4:35We can get incredible functionality
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4:35 - 4:37inside these little chips.
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4:37 - 4:39Let me show you.
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4:39 - 4:41We could, for example, mimic infection,
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4:41 - 4:45where we add bacterial cells into the lung.
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4:45 - 4:48then we can add human white blood cells.
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4:48 - 4:50White blood cells are our body's defense
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4:50 - 4:52against bacterial invaders,
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4:52 - 4:55and when they sense this
inflammation due to infection, -
4:55 - 4:58they will enter from the blood into the lung
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4:58 - 5:00and engulf the bacteria.
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5:00 - 5:02Well now you're going to see this happening
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5:02 - 5:05live in an actual human lung on a chip.
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5:05 - 5:09We've labeled the white blood cells
so you can see them flowing through, -
5:09 - 5:11and when they detect that infection,
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5:11 - 5:12they begin to stick.
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5:12 - 5:16They stick, and then they try to go into the lung
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5:16 - 5:18side from blood channel.
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5:18 - 5:22And you can see here, we can actually visualize
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5:22 - 5:25a single white blood cell.
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5:25 - 5:28It sticks, it wiggles its way through
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5:28 - 5:30between the cell layers, through the pore,
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5:30 - 5:32comes out on the other side of the membrane,
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5:32 - 5:36and right there, it's going to engulf the bacteria
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5:36 - 5:37labeled in green.
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5:37 - 5:40In that tiny chip, you just witnessed
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5:40 - 5:44one of the most fundamental responses
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5:44 - 5:46our body has to an infection.
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5:46 - 5:49It's the way we respond to -- an immune response.
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5:49 - 5:52It's pretty exciting.
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5:52 - 5:54Now I want to share this picture with you,
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5:54 - 5:57not just because it's so beautiful,
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5:57 - 6:00but because it tells us an enormous
amount of information -
6:00 - 6:03about what the cells are doing within the chips.
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6:03 - 6:05It tells us that these cells
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6:05 - 6:07from the small airways in our lungs,
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6:07 - 6:09actually have these hairlike structures
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6:09 - 6:11that you would expect to see in the lung.
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6:11 - 6:12These structures are called cilia,
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6:12 - 6:15and they actually move the mucus out of the lung.
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6:15 - 6:17Yeah. Mucus. Yuck.
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6:17 - 6:19But mucus is actually very important.
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6:19 - 6:22Mucus traps particulates, viruses,
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6:22 - 6:23potential allergens,
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6:23 - 6:25and these little cilia move
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6:25 - 6:27and clear the mucus out.
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6:27 - 6:29When they get damaged, say,
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6:29 - 6:31by cigarette smoke for example,
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6:31 - 6:34they don't work properly,
and they can't clear that mucus out. -
6:34 - 6:38And that can lead to diseases such as bronchitis.
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6:38 - 6:41Cilia and the clearance of mucus
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6:41 - 6:45are also involved in awful diseases like cystic fibrosis.
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6:45 - 6:49But now, with the functionality
that we get in these chips, -
6:49 - 6:51we can begin to look
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6:51 - 6:53for potential new treatments.
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6:53 - 6:55We didn't stop with the lung on a chip.
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6:55 - 6:57We have a gut on a chip.
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6:57 - 6:59You can see one right here.
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6:59 - 7:02And we've put intestinal human cells
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7:02 - 7:04in a gut on a chip,
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7:04 - 7:07and they're under constant peristaltic motion,
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7:07 - 7:10this trickling flow through the cells,
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7:10 - 7:13and we can mimic many of the functions
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7:13 - 7:15that you actually would expect to see
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7:15 - 7:17in the human intestine.
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7:17 - 7:20Now we can begin to create models of diseases
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7:20 - 7:23such as irritable bowel syndrome.
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7:23 - 7:25This is a disease that affects
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7:25 - 7:27a large number of individuals.
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7:27 - 7:29It's really debilitating,
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7:29 - 7:33and there aren't really many good treatments for it.
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7:33 - 7:35Now we have a whole pipeline
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7:35 - 7:37of different organ chips
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7:37 - 7:41that we are currently working on in our labs.
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7:41 - 7:44Now, the true power of this technology, however,
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7:44 - 7:46really comes from the fact
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7:46 - 7:49that we can fluidically link them.
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7:49 - 7:51There's fluid flowing across these cells,
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7:51 - 7:53so we can begin to interconnect
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7:53 - 7:56multiple different chips together
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7:56 - 8:00to form what we call a virtual human on a chip.
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8:00 - 8:03Now we're really getting excited.
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8:03 - 8:07We're not going to ever recreate
a whole human in these chips, -
8:07 - 8:11but what our goal is is to be able to recreate
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8:11 - 8:13sufficient functionality
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8:13 - 8:16so that we can make better predictions
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8:16 - 8:18of what's going to happen in humans.
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8:18 - 8:21For example, now we can begin to explore
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8:21 - 8:24what happens when we put
a drug like an aerosol drug. -
8:24 - 8:27Those of you like me who have asthma,
when you take your inhaler, -
8:27 - 8:30we can explore how that drug comes into your lungs,
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8:30 - 8:32how it enters the body,
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8:32 - 8:34how it might affect, say, your heart.
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8:34 - 8:35Does it change the beating of your heart?
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8:35 - 8:37Does it have a toxicity?
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8:37 - 8:39Does it get cleared by the liver?
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8:39 - 8:41Is it metabolized in the liver?
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8:41 - 8:43Is it excreted in your kidneys?
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8:43 - 8:45We can begin to study the dynamic
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8:45 - 8:48response of the body to a drug.
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8:48 - 8:50This could really revolutionize
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8:50 - 8:52and be a game changer
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8:52 - 8:55for not only the pharmaceutical industry,
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8:55 - 8:57but a whole host of different industries,
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8:57 - 8:59including the cosmetics industry.
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8:59 - 9:02We can potentially use the skin on a chip
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9:02 - 9:04that we're currently developing in the lab
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9:04 - 9:07to test whether the ingredients in those products
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9:07 - 9:10that you're using are actually
safe to put on your skin -
9:10 - 9:13without the need for animal testing.
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9:13 - 9:15We could test the safety
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9:15 - 9:17of chemicals that we are exposed to
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9:17 - 9:19on a daily basis in our environment,
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9:19 - 9:23such as chemicals in regular household cleaners.
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9:23 - 9:26We could also use the organs on chips
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9:26 - 9:28for applications in bioterrorism
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9:28 - 9:31or radiation exposure.
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9:31 - 9:34We could use them to learn more about
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9:34 - 9:37diseases such as ebola
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9:37 - 9:41or other deadly diseases such as SARS.
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9:41 - 9:43Organs on chips could also change
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9:43 - 9:47the way we do clinical trials in the future.
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9:47 - 9:49Right now, the average participant
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9:49 - 9:53in a clinical trial is that: average.
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9:53 - 9:56Tends to be middle aged, tends to be female.
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9:56 - 9:58You won't find many clinical trials
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9:58 - 10:00in which children are involved,
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10:00 - 10:03yet every day, we give children medications,
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10:03 - 10:07and the only safety data we have on that drug
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10:07 - 10:10is one that we obtained from adults.
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10:10 - 10:12Children are not adults.
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10:12 - 10:15They may not respond in the same way adults do.
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10:15 - 10:18There are other things like genetic differences
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10:18 - 10:19in populations
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10:19 - 10:22that may lead to at-risk populations
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10:22 - 10:26that are at risk of having an adverse drug reaction.
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10:26 - 10:29Now imagine if we could take cells
from all those different populations, -
10:29 - 10:31put them on chips,
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10:31 - 10:33and create populations on a chip.
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10:33 - 10:35This could really change the way
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10:35 - 10:37we do clinical trials.
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10:37 - 10:40And this is the team and the people
that are doing this. -
10:40 - 10:43We have engineers, we have cell biologists,
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10:43 - 10:47we have clinicians, all working together.
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10:47 - 10:48We're really seeing something quite incredible
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10:48 - 10:50at the Wyss Institute.
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10:50 - 10:52It's really a convergence of disciplines,
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10:52 - 10:56where biology is influencing the way we design,
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10:56 - 10:59the way we engineer, the way we build.
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10:59 - 11:00It's pretty exciting.
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11:00 - 11:04We're establishing important industry collaborations
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11:04 - 11:07such as the one we have with a company
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11:07 - 11:11that has expertise in large-scale
digital manufacturing. -
11:11 - 11:13They're going to help us make,
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11:13 - 11:14instead of one of these,
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11:14 - 11:16millions of these chips,
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11:16 - 11:17so that we can get them into the hands
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11:17 - 11:20of as many researchers as possible.
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11:20 - 11:24And this is key to the potential of that technology.
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11:24 - 11:27Now let me show you our instrument.
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11:27 - 11:29This is an instrument that our engineers
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11:29 - 11:32are actually prototyping right now in the lab,
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11:32 - 11:34and this instrument is going to give us
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11:34 - 11:36the engineering controls that we're going to require
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11:36 - 11:41in order to link 10 or more organ chips together.
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11:41 - 11:43It does something else that's very important.
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11:43 - 11:46It creates an easy user interface.
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11:46 - 11:49So a cell biologist like me can come in,
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11:49 - 11:51take a chip, put it in a cartridge
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11:51 - 11:53like the prototype you see there,
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11:53 - 11:55put the cartridge into the machine
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11:55 - 11:56just like you would a C.D.,
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11:56 - 11:57and away you go.
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11:57 - 12:00Plug and play. Easy.
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12:00 - 12:03Now, let's imagine a little bit
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12:03 - 12:04what the future might look like
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12:04 - 12:06if I could take your stem cells
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12:06 - 12:08and put them on a chip,
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12:08 - 12:11or your stem cells and put them on a chip.
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12:11 - 12:14It would be a personalized chip just for you.
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12:14 - 12:18Now all of us in here are individuals,
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12:18 - 12:21and those individual differences mean
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12:21 - 12:23that we could react very differently
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12:23 - 12:27and sometimes in unpredictable ways to drugs.
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12:27 - 12:32I myself, a couple of years back,
had a really bad headache, -
12:32 - 12:34just couldn't shake it, thought,
"Well, I'll try something different." -
12:34 - 12:36I took some Advil. Fifteen minutes later,
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12:36 - 12:38I was on my way to the emergency room
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12:38 - 12:40with a full-blown asthma attack.
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12:40 - 12:42Now, obviously it wasn't fatal,
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12:42 - 12:45but unfortunately, some of these
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12:45 - 12:49adverse drug reactions can be fatal.
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12:49 - 12:51So how do we prevent them?
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12:51 - 12:53Well, we could imagine one day
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12:53 - 12:56having Geraldine on a chip,
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12:56 - 12:57having Danielle on a chip,
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12:57 - 12:59having you on a chip.
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12:59 - 13:01Personalized medicine. Thank you.
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13:01 - 13:05(Applause)
- Title:
- Body parts on a chip
- Speaker:
- Geraldine Hamilton
- Description:
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It's relatively easy to imagine a new medicine, a better cure for some disease. The hard part, though, is testing it, and that can delay promising new cures for years. In this well-explained talk, Geraldine Hamilton shows how her lab creates organs and body parts on a chip, simple structures with all the pieces essential to testing new medications -- even custom cures for one specific person. (Filmed at TEDxBoston)
- Video Language:
- English
- Team:
- closed TED
- Project:
- TEDTalks
- Duration:
- 13:23
Morton Bast edited English subtitles for Body parts on a chip | ||
Paulina Szyszka commented on English subtitles for Body parts on a chip | ||
Morton Bast edited English subtitles for Body parts on a chip | ||
Morton Bast edited English subtitles for Body parts on a chip | ||
Morton Bast approved English subtitles for Body parts on a chip | ||
Madeleine Aronson edited English subtitles for Body parts on a chip | ||
Madeleine Aronson accepted English subtitles for Body parts on a chip | ||
Madeleine Aronson edited English subtitles for Body parts on a chip |
Paulina Szyszka
It should be The Wyss Institute, not ViS Institute. Thanks!